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CUBA, 



AND 



THE CUBANS; 



COMPRISING 



A HISTORY OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA, 

ITS PRESENT SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND DOMESTIC CONDITION 

ALSO, ITS RELATION TO ENGLAND AND THE 

UNITED STATES. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF "LETTERS FROM CUBA.' 



WITH AN APPENDIX, 

CONTAINING IMPORTANT STATISTICS, AND A BBPLT TO SENOR SACO 
ON ANNEXATION, TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH. 



NEW YORK: 

SAMUEL HUESTON, 139 NASSAU STREET. 

GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 155 BROADWAY. 

1850. 






Entered, according to act of Congi-ess, in the year 1850, by 

SAMUEL HUESTON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



STEREOTYPED BY BANER AND PALMER, 

201 William St., corner of Frankfort, N. Y. 



By K 

Jan* it 



^' ^<^^^r^o,,^ 



CUBA AND THE CUBANS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Cuba discovered by Columbus. — Names of the Island. — Character 
of the Natives. — Town of Baracoa. — Havana burnt in 1538. — Seat 
of Government transferred to Havana. — Succession of Governors. 
— Cultivation of Tobacco and Sugar introduced about 1580. — 
Slavery introduced at the same time. — Depredations of Pirates. — 
A Commissioner of the Inquisition comes from Carthagena to re- 
side in Havana. — Jamaica taken by the English. — Apprehensions 
of the Cubans. — The English repulsed. — Walls commenced round 
the City of Havana in 1663. — City of Santiago destroyed by an 
Earthquake. — Invasion of the Island by the English in 1762.— 
Morro Castle taken by them July 30th, and the City of Havana on 
the 14th of August. — Distribution of the Spoils. — Peace concluded 
with England in 1763. — The Island restored to the Spaniards.^ 
Results of the wise Policy of Las Casas. — Great Fire in 1802.— 
News of the Proceedings of Napoleon in Spain. — Its Effects in 
Cuba. — Negro Conspiracy. — Different Captains-Genei'al'. 

Cuba, the finest and largest of the West India Isl- 
ands, was discovered by Columbus himself, on the 28th 
day of October, 1492, and was named by him Juana, 
in honor of Prince John, the son of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, the sovereigns of Aragon and Castile. 

Upon the death of Ferdinand, the island was called 
Fernandina. It afterward received the name of San- 
tiago, as a mark of reverence for the patron saint of 
Spain, and still later, the inhabitants, to illustrate 
their piety, gave it that of Ave Maria, in honor of the 
Holy Virgin. 

Notwithstanding these several titles, the island ig 
still principally known by its original Indian name of 



8 CUBA AND 

Cuba ; a name which it bore when the great navigator 
first landed on its shores, and which in all probability 
it is destined to retain. 

* With regard to the character of the aboriginal in- 
habitants of the island, it is universally admitted by 
all the Spanish authors who have written on the sub- 
ject, that they were disinterested and docile, gentle 
and generous, and that they received the first discov- 
erer, as well as the conquerors, who followed in his 
tra,ck, with the most marked attention and courtesy. 
At the same time they are represented as being en- 
tirely given up to the enjo3Tnent of those personal 
indulgences, and all the listlessness and love of ease, 
which the climate is supposed to provoke, and which 
is said to have amounted in the eyes of their European 
conquerors to positive cowardice and pusillanimitj^ 
They seldom spoke until first addressed by the stran- 
gers, and then with perfect modesty and respect. 
Their hospitality was unbounded ; but they were 
unwilling to expose themselves to any personal fatigue 
bej^ond what was strictly necessary for their subsist- 
ence. The cultivation of the soil was confined, as Co- 
lumbus had observed, to the raising of yams, garban- 
zos, and maize, or Indian corn, but as huntsmen and 
fishermen they were exceedingly expert. Their habili- 
ments were on the most limited scale, and their laws 
and manners sanctioned the practice of polygamy. 
The use of iron was totally unknown to them, but they 
supplied the want of it with pointed shells, in con- 
structing their weapons, and in fashioning their imple- 
ments for fishing and the chase. Their almost total 
want of quadrupeds 13 worthy of notice. 

Although the island was divided into nine principal- 
ities, under nine different caciques, all independent of 
each other, yet such was the pacific disposition of the 
inhabitants, that the most perfect tranquillity prevailed 

* TurnbuU's Travels in Cuba. 



THE CUBANS. • 9 

throughout the island at the time of the arrival of the 
invaders. The several governments were adminis- 
tered in the simplest form, the will of the cacique 
being received as law by his subjects, and the age he 
had attained being in general the measure of his influ- 
ence and authority, and of the reverence and respect 
with which he was treated. Their religion was limited 
to a belief in the immortality of the soul, and to the 
existence of a beneficent Deity — un Bios remunerador. 
But their priests were cunning, superstitious, or fa- 
natic, pretending to intelligence with malignant spirits, 
and maintaining their influence over the people by 
working on their fears, and practicing the grossest and 
most ridiculous extravagances. No sanguinary sacri- 
fices were resorted to, however; still less could the 
gentle race be chargeable with the horrid practices of 
the savage anthropophagi ; and, according to the ear- 
liest Spanish authorities, they distinguished themselves 
beyond any other Indian nation, by the readiness and 
docility with which they received the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. 

The town of Baracoa, which was called de la Asump- 
cion^ was the first that was founded, and was for some 
time considered the capital, until, in the year 1514, 
the whole of it had been overrun and examined. In 
that year, the towns of Santiago and Trinidad, on the 
southern side, were founded for the purpose of facili- 
tating the communications of the new colonists with 
the Spanish inhabitants of Jamaica. Near the centre 
of the island also were established, soon after this 
period, the towns of Bayamo, Puerto Principe, and 
Santi-Espiritus, and that of Baracoa was considerably 
enlarged. In the sequel, as there was no town toward 
the north, that of San Juan de los Remedies was 
founded ; and on the 25th of July, 1515, at the place 
now called Batabano, on the south side of the island, 
was planted a town with the name of San Cristobal de 
la Habana, in deference to the memory of the jllustri- 
1* 



10 CUBA AND 

ous discoverer ; but in the year 1519 this name was 
transferred to the place where the capital now stands. 
The leaning of the Spaniards toward the southern side 
of the island appears to have arisen from their previ- 
ous possession of Jamaica and the Costa Firme ; as 
till then they had no idea of the existence of the Flori- 
das, or of New Spain ; the expedition for the conquest 
of which, as well as the steps toward their first dis- 
covery, having been taken from the island of Cuba. 

The town of Baracoa having first been raised to the 
dignity of a city and a bishopric, was declared the cap- 
ital of the island in 1518, and remained so till 1522, 
when both were transferred to Santiago de Cuba. In 
1538 the Havana, second city of the name, was sur- 
prised by a French privateer, who reduced it to ashes. 
This misfortune brought the governor of the island, 
Hernando de Soto, to the spot, who lost no time in lay- 
ing the foundation of the Castillo de la Fuerza, one 
of the numerous fortresses which still exist for the 
defence of the city. With this protection, combined 
with the advantageous geographical position of the har- 
bor, the ships already passing, charged with the riches 
of New Spain, on their way to the Peninsula, were 
induced to call there for supplies of water and provi- 
sions. In this way the Havana began to rise in impor- 
tance b}^ insensible degrees, insomuch that in 1549, 
on the arrival of a new governor, Gonzalez Perez de 
Angulo, he resolved on making it his place of resi- 
dence. His example was followed by subsequent gov- 
ernors, and in this way the city, although without any 
royal or legal sanction, came to be silently regarded as 
the capital of the island, until in 1589 it was formally 
declared so by the peninsular government, at the time 
of the nomination of the first captain-general. El Ma- 
estre de Campo, Juan de Tejada, who was positively 
directed to take up his residence at the Havana. 

In the annals of the island the names of the first 
governors and of their lieutenants have not been re- 



THE CUBANS. , 11 

corded with a degree of accuracy that can be altogether 
depended on. All that is known with certainty is, 
that the early chiefs resided at Santiago de Cuba, from 
its being the place where the largest population was 
collected, from its proximity to Jamaica and St. Do- 
mingo, and from its being the seat of the ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction. For the Havana and other towns of infe- 
rior importance, lieutenants were appointed. This 
system continued until the year 1538, when Hernando 
de Soto, who to the rank of Adelantado of the Flori- 
das, added the office of governor of Cuba, having ar- 
rived at Santiago, passed a few days there, and then 
proceeded to the continent. In his absence he left 
the government of the island in the hands of a lady, 
Dona Isabel de Bobadilla, and gave her for a colleague, 
Don Juan de Rojas. This Rojas had previously re- 
sided at the Havana, in quality of lieutenant-governor ; 
and it is from this date that the gradual transference 
of the seat of power from Santiago to the Havana may 
be said to have arisen. It was not till the year 1607 
that the island was divided into two separate govern- 
ments. 

In 1545, Don Juan de Avila assumed the govern- 
ment, and to him in 1547 succeeded Don Antonio de 
Chavez, to whom the Havana is indebted for its first 
regular supply of water, bringing it from the river 
called by the aborigines Casiguaguas, and by the 
Spaniards Chorrera, a distance of two leagues from 
the city. At that period the trade of the place was 
limited. The largest and wealthiest proprietors were 
mere breeders of cattle ; as yet agriculture was very 
little attended to, and any actual labor performed con- 
sisted in exploring the neighborhood in pursuit of the 
precious metals. 

To this governor succeeded Dr. Gonzalo Perez de 
Angulo, who, according to the historia-n Urrutia, was 
the first who resided at the Havana during the greater 
part of his administration. At this period the number 



12 CUBA AND 

of cattle and the practice of agriculture had so much 
increased that the expeditions from the neighboring 
continent obtained their supplies at the Havana, and 
from thence also large quantities of provisions were 
sent to the Terra Firma. For some time large profits 
were made by means of these exports, more especially 
in the sale of horses for the troops ; but the continen- 
tal settlements, having at length been able to provide 
for themselves, this source of profit was dried up. 

In the year 1554 the government was assumed by 
Don Diego de Mazariegos, and, during his administra- 
tion, the Havana was again attacked and reduced to 
ashes by the French, notwithstanding the protection 
supposed to be afibrded by the Castillo de la Fuerza. 
The other towns of the island were also insulted, inso- 
much that the bishop of the diocese was compelled to 
leave Santiago and take up his residence at Bayamo, 
causing a serious misunderstanding between the eccle- 
siastical authorities and the civil governor. 

To Mazariegos, in 1565, succeeded Garcia Osorio, 
and to Osorio, two years afterward, Don Pedro Melen- 
dez de Avilez, who at the same time held the office of 
Jidelantado of the Floridas, administering the afiairs 
of the island for a number of years by means of a se- 
ries of lieutenant-governors. At this period, the hos- 
pital of San Juan de Dios, and a church dedicated to 
San Cristobal, were erected at the Havana. This 
church was built on the spot now occupied by the resi- 
dence of the captain-general. Don Gabriel Mental vo 
was the successor of Melendez, and assumed the gov- 
ernment in 1576. In his time the Franciscan convent 
was erected, in spite of the opposition of the bishop ; 
and preparations were made, by the building of suita- 
ble vessels, for the extirpation of the pirates by whom 
the coasts of the island were infested. Don Francisco" 
Carreno, the successor of Montalvo, assumed the com- 
mand in 1578. In his time the weights and measures 
of the island were regulated ; and vast quantities of 



THE CUBANS. * 13 

timber were shipped to the mother-country, to con- 
tribute toward the construction of the convent and 
palace of the Escorial. 

During the administration of Don Gaspar de Torres, 
the successor of Carreno, who arrived in 1580, not 
only Cuba, but the neighboring islands of Jamaica and 
St. Domingo, were more than ever annoyed by piratical 
incursions. The expense occasioned by the attempts 
to suppress them was so great, that it became neces- 
sary to impose a special tax, called la sisa de piragua^ 
to cover it. 

At this period was begun the cultivation of tobacco 
and the sugar-cane, the labor of which was found to 
be too great for the indolent aborigines, whose numbers 
had already been materially diminished by the state of 
slavery to which they had been reduced. It was to 
promote the production of these new luxuries, that a 
royal license was first obtained for importing negroes 
from the coast of Africa. 

The continued presence and increasing numbers of 
the pirates began to give a factitious importance to the 
castellanos of the fortress, which protected the harbor 
of the Havana, and sheltered the lanchas and piraguas 
and the guardacostas themselves. A military power 
thus insensibly arose, which, coming into collision with 
that of the civil governor, caused a great deal of dis- 
turbance and confusion. The next governor, Don 
Gabriel de Lujin, who arrived in 1584, came to such 
a serious rupture with Don Diego Fernandez de Qui- 
nones, the Castellano de la Fuerza, that the real audi- 
encia of the district, at the instigation of Quinones, 
took it upon them to suspend Don Gabriel from his 
administration of the government, but some time after- 
ward restored him. On the application of the ayunta- 
miento^ the two offices were afterward combined and 
vested in the same individual. During Lujan's admin- 
istration, several hostile demonstrations were made 
against the island ; but none of them were seriously 



14 CUBA AND 

prosecuted. The attacks of a diminutive enemy, the 
ant, became so alarming, however, that it was thought 
necessary by the Cabildo, or chapter of the diocese, to 
elect a new patron saint, and to confer that dignity 
on San Marcial, the bishop agreeing to celebrate his 
fiesta, and keep his day yearly, on the condition of his 
interceding for the extermination of the hormigas and 
vivijaguas. 

The successor of Lujan, Don Juan de Tejada, was 
the first governor who arrived with the rank of captain- 
general, in which was included the same powers and 
jurisdiction enjoyed by the vireyes of the continental 
possessions of the crown. Tejada was directed to 
commence the construction of the two fortresses now 
known as the Morro and the Punta, and for this pur- 
pose brought with him the Engineer Don Juan Bau- 
tista Antoneli ; and he was authorized to negotiate 
with the provinces of New Spain for obtaining contri- 
butions, by which to support the garrison, which at 
that time was limited for all the three fortresses to 300 
men. After the building of the Morro was begun, it 
is said that Antoneli having ascended the heights of 
the Cabana, remarked to those about him, that from 
that point the city and the Morro itself would be com- 
manded. This opinion having been communicated to 
the government, the construction of the present for- 
tress of the Cabanas was immediately determined on. 
During Tejada' s government the Havana received the 
title of Ciudad ; the ayuntamiento was increased to 
the number of twelve regidores ; and a coat of arms 
was given to it by Philip the Second^ bearing on a blue 
field three castles argent^ in allusion to the Fuerza, 
the Morro, and the Punta, and a golden key to signify 
that it was the key of the Indies ; the whole sur- 
mounted by a crown. 

Tejada was succeeded as captain-general in 1602 
by Don Pedro Valdes, who made strong representa- 
tions to the court on the subject of the excesses com- 



THE CUBANS. , 15 

niitted by the pirates, by whose incursions Santiago 
had been almost depopulated. The bishop, on return- 
ing there from Bayamo on a temporary visit, was 
seized, tied, stripped, and carried off by the pirate 
Giron, and detained for eighty days on board his ves- 
sel, until he was ransomed by the payment of 200 
ducats and five arrobas of beef by Don Gregorio Ra- 
mos, who, after rescuing the bishop, succeeded in de- 
strojdng the pirate. From the insecurity of Santiago, 
this bishop attempted, but without success, to establish 
his cathedral at the Havana. The supreme govern- 
ment, however, to stay the progress of depopulation at 
Santiago, resolved on establishing there a subordinate 
governor with the rank of capitan a guerra, and ap- 
pointed to the ofl&ce Don Juan de Villaverde, the Cas- 
tellano of the Morro, who was charged with the defence 
of his new jurisdiction against the pirates. 

The successor of Valdes was Don Gaspar Ruiz de 
Pereda in 1608 ; and that of Pereda in 1616 was Don 
Sancho de Alquiza. This last had been previously 
the governor of Venezuela and Guiana, and he is re- 
corded to have applied himself with energy to the 
working of the copper mines at Cobre in the neighbor- 
hood of Santiago ; the superintendence of which was 
for some time annexed to the office of captain-general 
of the Havana, although it was afterward transferred 
to the lieutenant-governor at Santiago. The annual 
produce of that period was about 2000 quintals, and 
the copper extracted is represented to have been of a 
quality superior to any thing then known in the foun- 
deries of Europe. Alquiza died after having enjoyed 
his office only two years ; and by a provision of the 
real audiencia, he was succeeded in the temporary com- 
mand by Geronimo de Quero, the castellano of the 
Morro, whose military rank was that of sargento 
mayor. From this period till the year 1715 it ap- 
pears that, in the nomination of captains-general, a 
declaration was constantly introduced to the effect that 



16 CUBA AND 

the castellanos of the Morro, on the death of the 
captain-general, should succeed to the military com- 
mand of the island ; but since the year 1715 an officer 
has been specially named with the rank of teniente 
rey or cabo-subalterno, whose functions acquire an 
active character only on the death or incapacity of his 
chief. 

Doctor Damian Velasquez de Contreras succeeded 
Alquiza in 1620, and Don Lorenzo de Cabrera, the 
next captain-general, was appointed to the command 
in 1626. A charge was brought against Cabrera, that 
he had sold a cargo of negroes in the Havana without 
a royal license ; which being backed by other com- 
plaints, the licenciado Don Francisco de Prada was 
sent out to inquire into them, and by him the captain- 
general was sent home to the Peninsula, when de Prada 
assumed the civil and political jurisdiction, and as- 
signed the military command to Don Cristobal de 
Aranda, the alcaide of the Morro. During the joint 
administration of de Prada and Aranda it was resolved 
to shut up the entrance of the harbor by means of a 
chain drawn across it, a resolution which is described 
by the historians of the period as having been exceed- 
ingly extravagant and absurd. 

The next captain-general was Don Juan Bitrian de 
Viamonte, who began his administration in 1630, and 
projected the construction of two strong towers, the 
one in Chorrera, and the other in Cojimar, but the 
plan was not carried into effect until the year 1646. 
At this period a certain good woman, known by the 
name of Magdalena de Jesus, established a sort of 
female sanctuary, called a beaterio, which gave rise to 
the establishment of the first female monastery of 
Santa Clara. 

Fears of an invasion of the island by the Dutch 
now began to be entertained in the Peninsula ; and as 
Viamonte's health was infirm, he was removed to the 
presidency of St. Domingo ; and, in 1634, Don Fran- 



THE CUBANS. * 17 

cisco Riano y Gamboa was sent out to replace him. 
Gamboa introduced important reforms in the collection 
of the revenue. He established a court of accounts at 
the Havana, to which was afterward referred the exam- 
ination of all public disbursements, not only for the 
island of Cuba, but for Porto Rico, the Floridas, and 
that portion of the Spanish navy called the windward 
fleet, la Armada de Barlovento. At first, a single 
accountant-general was named; but a second was 
afterward added, with instructions to visit alternately 
the various parts where the colonial revenue was col- 
lected or disbursed. During the government of Gam- 
boa, also, a commissioner of the Inquisition came from 
Carthagena to reside in the Havana; to provide for 
whose support one of the canons of the cathedral of 
Santiago was suppressed. The bishops had for some 
time acquired a taste for residing in the capital, and 
other members of the ecclesiastical cabildo began to 
follow their example, soon degenerating into an abuse 
which loudly called for a remedy. 

The successor of Gamboa was Don Alvaro di Luna 
y Sarmiento, who commenced his administration in 
1639, and in the course of it completed the castle of 
Chorrera, two leagues to leeward of the Havana, and 
the Torreon de Cojimar, one league to windward. 

In 1647, Sarmiento was succeeded by Don Diego de 
Villalva y Toledo, who, in 1650, was replaced by Don 
Francisco Gelder. During Gelder's administration, 
the establishment of the Commonwealth in England 
gave rise to serious apprehensions for the safety of the 
Spanish possessions in America ; especia,lly when it 
became known, that, in 1655, a squadron had sailed 
by order of the Protector, the ostensible object of which 
was the reconciliation of the English colonies to the 
new form of government, but with the real design of 
ca^pturing Jamaica. It is scarcely necessa-ry to add, 
that this design was successfully executed; that the 
Spanish defenders of Jamaica were dispersed, and the 



18 CUBA AND 

governor killed, and that many of the inhabitants re- 
moved in consequence to Cuba. An attempt on the 
Havana was also made by this expedition, but the 
assailants were successfully resisted. The failure is 
ascribed by the Spaniards to a sort of miracle per- 
formed in their favor. The invaders having landed 
on a very dark night, they became so terrified, accord- 
ing to the Spanish authorities, by the noise of the land- 
crabs and the flitting light of the fire-flies, which they 
took for an enemy in ambuscade, that they fled to their 
ships in the utmost disorder and confusion. 

The next captain-general was Don Juan Montano, 
who arrived in 1656. During his time the Spaniards 
of Jamaica continued to defend themselves under two 
distinguished hacendados, Don Francisco Proenza, 
and Don Cristobal de Isasi ; who, for their exertions 
in preserving the island to the Spanish crown, received 
thanks and honors from the court. Orders were also 
sent out to the other Spanish settlements in America 
to lend their assistance to the Jamaica loyalists ; and 
a strong expedition was prepared in the Peninsula, 
having the same object in view. In the end, however, 
in consequence of the sickness which prevailed on 
board the ships, the expedition never sailed, and the 
Spaniards were compelled to evacuate the island. 

Montano having died within a year after his arrival, 
was succeeded in the command, in 1658, by Don Juan 
de Salamanca, in whose time the incursions of the 
pirates became more troublesome than ever, on all the 
coasts of Spanish America. As many of them had 
the audacity to sail under the flags of France and 
England, the court of Spain addressed itself to these 
governments on the subject, and received for answer 
that, having no countenance or authority from either, 
the Spaniards were at liberty to deal with them as 
they thought fit. At this period the French, having 
established themselves in the island of Tortuga, began 
from thence by slow degrees, first on hunting parties^ 



PREFACE 



No excuse is deemed necessary for publishing a volume 
on Cuba, at a time when the attention both of England 
and the United States is directed toward that island with 
eager interest. Political events have transpired so rapidly 
within the last two years, that 

" That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker." 

We are borne onward by a force which seems hastening 
some great consummation. If all do not agree as to the 
result which these changes are to bring, no one can shut 
his eyes to the changes themselves. They have multiplied 
within the year ; they are multiplying ; they will continue 
to multiply. The conservative and the radical — the ultra 
whig and the ultra democrat — are all overwhelmed by the 
resistless course of things, if they stop even but a moment 
to contemplate it. What is to be done ? Shall we attempt 
to stay this irresistible progression, and be swept away by 
it ; or shall we rather do what we may to control and 
direct it? >^. 

As to Cuba, a word only need be said. Tj^i^^ °^ with- 
out the United States, she will soon be free from Spanish 
dominion ; and — which is of greater consequence to this 



IV PREFACE. 



country — if free without our aid or influence, she falls to 
England. How will the United States relish the possession 
by that nation of a point which commands the Gulf of 
Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi ? J> 

The analysis of Cuban taxes in these pages is believed 
to be the first of the kind ever attempted ; and it is hoped 
the chapters on the social and domestic manners of the 
Cubans, on religion and education, will interest the reader. 

The Appendix contains much important statistical infor- 
mation, together with a translation of a pamphlet from the 
Spanish in reply to Don Jose Antonio Saco, on the subject 
of the annexation of Cuba to the United States. This last 
is given to illustrate the feehng among the Cubans them- 
selves, and to show the opinions held by the leading Cuban 
planters. 

It should be stated that the larger part of the first 
chapter of this work is abridged from the historical notice 
of Cuba in " Turnbull's Travels in Cuba." 



New York, March 1st, 1850. 



THE CUBANS. * 19 

and afterward more permanently, to make encroach- 
ments on the neighboring coast of the island of St. 
Domingo ; until, in the end, they had completely taken 
possession of the western part of it, and created there 
a respectable colony. According to the Spanish au- 
thorities, the French colonists of St. Domingo formed 
an alliance with the English in Jamaica, and, without 
the sanction of either of their governments in Europe, 
made piratical incursions in the Spanish territories, 
and at length became so formidable, that the Spaniards 
found it necessary to fortify their possessions, and to 
combine together for their mutual protection. The 
most remarkable of these piratical leaders was the 
Frenchman Lolonois and the celebrated Morgan. 

In 1663, arrived as captain-general Don Rodrigo de 
Flores y Aldana, who in the following year was re- 
lieved by Don Francisco Orejon y Gaston, previously 
governor of Gibraltar and Venezuela. Fearing the 
neighborhood of the English in Jamaica, Gaston ap- 
plied himself to the construction of the walls of the 
Havana ; and to meet the expense he was authorized 
to levy half a real on each quarter of an arroba of 
wine, nearly equal to a gallon, which might be sold in 
the city ; but this having given rise to complaints, the 
Spanish government by a royal cedula directed that 
$20,000 a year should be raised for the purpose in 
Mexico ; and that as much more should be procured 
as the captain-general could extract by other means 
from the inhabitants of the Havana. 

The next governor was Don Rodriguez de Ledesma, 
who assumed his functions in 16T0, and prosecuted 
the work of fortification with the greatest ardor. He 
also prepared a naval armament for the protection of 
the coast. It was at this time that the working of the 
copper mines near Santiago was abandoned, and that 
the reconstruction of the cathedral in that city was 
begun ; but the greater part of the slaves employed in 
the mines were sent to the Havana to work on the 



20 CUBA AND 

fortifications. During Ledesma's administration, a 
French party landed in the eastern part of the island, 
to the number of 800, under the command of one 
Franquinay, with the intention of plundering the city 
of Santiago, but they withdrew without doing any 
damage, alarmed, according to the Spanish accounts, 
by hearing the mere cry of " al arma.^^ In 1675 the 
city of Santiago was destroyed by an earthquake, a 
calamity from which the Havana and the western parts 
of the island appear to be exempt. Ledesma com- 
plained bitterly to his government that the English 
authorities in Jamaica countenanced and encouraged 
the attacks of the pirates, and applied for leave to 
make reprisals. He was succeeded by Don Jose Fer- 
nandez de Cordoba Ponce de Leon, who began his 
administration in 1680, and continued the work of for- 
tification with energy. 

In 1687 Ponce de Leon was replaced by Don Diego 
de Viana e Hinojosa, and to him in 1689 succeeded 
Don Severino de Manzaneda y Salinas, during whose 
administration the city of Matanzas was founded, the 
first lines of it having been traced on the 10th of Oc- 
tober, 1693, in presence of the captain-general, and 
many other persons of distinction. The etymology of 
the name Matanzas is much disputed by the antiqua- 
rians of Cuba, some ascribing it to the slaughter of 
Indians at the time of the conquest of the island, con- 
tending that the supposed Indian name Yumuri, that 
of one of the two rivers between which the city stands, 
is in fact a synonym in bad Spanish for this general 
massacre. Others contend, with equal pertinacity, 
that it was the natives who killed the Spaniards, while 
passing from one side of the bay to the other, having 
mutinied against their masters and used their oars 
successfully as weapons of ojQTence. Seven of the 
Spaniards are said to have a-ttempted to escape, but 
were carried prisoners to a neighboring Indian town, 



THE CUBANS. 21 

where they were all put to death except one, who 
escaped to tell the tale of the Matanza. 

The next captain-general was Don Diego de Cor- 
doba Lazo de la Vega 3 to him in 1702 succeeded Don 
Pedro Nicolas Benitez de Lugo, who died soon after 
his arrival. The next captain-general was Don Pedro 
Alvarez de Villarin, who arrived in 1706, and died the 
same year. After him, in 1708, came the Marques 
de Casa Torres, ex-governor of the Floridas, who hav- 
ing had some dispute with the auditor Don Jose Fer- 
nandez de Cordoba, was suspended from his office by 
the real audiencia. 

The foundling hospital, or Casa de JYinos Espositos, 
vulgarly called La Cuna^ was founded in 1711 by 
Don Fray Jeronimo de Valdes, an institution which 
still exists, and, like that of St. Pierre in the island 
of Martinique, is only resorted to by the white inhab- 
itants, the presentation of a colored infant being a 
thing unknown. This fact, whether it arise fi^om the 
sense of shame being stronger in the white mother, or 
from natural affection being stronger in the colored 
mother, is not unworthy of investigation. 

Don Vicente Raja arrived as captain-general in the 
year 1716, bringing with him a royal cedula, declaring 
that in the event of his absence, illness, or death, the 
civil and military government should be transferred to 
the teniente rey; in case of his absence, illness, or 
death, to the castellano del Morro; and failing the 
castellano, to the sergeant-major of the garrison ; and 
failing him, to the senior captain of infantry, so as 
that in no case the civil and military jurisdictions 
should ever afterward be divided. 

In the following year Raja returned to Spain, and 
in 1718 Don Gregorio Guazo arrived as his successor. 
Nothing material occurred during his administration, 
and he was replaced in 1724 by Don Dionisio Mar- 
tinez de la Vega. In his time a serious difference 
arose on the occasion of an appointment to the office 



22 CUBA AND 

of lieutenant-governor of Santiago. On the 10th of 
May, 1728, Lieutenant- Colonel Don Juan del Hoyo 
took possession of the local government, and a_ few 
months afterward a royal cedula arrived prohibiting 
his admission. On this the captain-general required 
his removal ; but the ayuntamiento opposed it, saying 
it was one thing to remove an officer, and another not 
to admit him. Lawyers were consulted on the point ; 
and the court of chancery of the district was referred 
to, who decided that the ayuntamiento were in the 
right, and the captain-general in the wrong. At this 
juncture the windward fleet, la Armado de Barlo- 
vento, arrived under the command of Don Antonio de 
Escudero, who, in his zeal for the royal service, and 
without any authority but that of force, laid hold of 
Del Hoyo, removed him from his employment, and 
carried him off to Vera Cruz. No sooner had he re- 
gained his liberty than he returned to the island ; and 
having visited the town of Puerto Principe, which at 
that time formed part of his jurisdiction, the people 
rose against him, and having once more made him 
prisoner, sent him in irons to the Havana, from 
whence the captain-general had him carried to Madrid. 
The next captain-general was Don Juan Francisco 
Guemes y Horcasitas, who arrived in the year 1734, 
and to him, in 1746, succeeded Don Juan Antonio 
Tineo y Fuertes, who died in the following year. He 
was the first captain-general who thought it necessary 
to establish a separate hospital for the reception of 
dissolute and incorrigible women ; for which purpose 
the revenues of vacant ecclesiastical offices were to be 
applied. The date of the termination of the govern- 
ment of Martinez has not been very clearly defined : 
he was succeeded provisionally by Don Diego de Pena- 
losa, as teniente rey de la plaza^ and was replaced 
in 1747 by Don Francisco Cagigal de la Vega, who 
had previously been lieutenant-governor at Santiago. 
On leaving the command in 1760, the government w^as 



THE CUBANS. ^ 23 

assumed provisionally by the Teniente Rey Don Pedro 
Alonzo; and he was relieved, in 1761, by Don Juan 
de Prado Porto Carrero, whose government was made 
so memorable by the capture of the city by the En- 
glish. 

The Habaneros themselves seem desirous to com- 
memorate the event by retaining English names for 
the points of the coast where the landing of the expe- 
dition was effected, and for the fortresses which were 
occupied preparatory to the descent on the Morro. In 
the Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriotica there are 
also some interesting notices of the event. 

The captain-general, according to some accounts, 
was apprised of the fact that the English were pre- 
paring an expedition for the invasion of the island ; 
but although he had made certain arrangements for the 
reception of the enemy, it is said that he never sei-i- 
ously believed that an invasion was about to take 
place. He made it his business, however, to ascer- 
tain what number of men might be relied on for the 
defence of the island ; and even the proportion of 
slaves to whom arms might be safely intrusted. Jun- 
tas were frequently assembled for the discussion of 
these matters during the three months which inter- 
vened between the first rumor of the invasion and the 
actual descent of the enemy. At length, on the 6th 
of June, 1T62, when a fleet of at least 250 sail had 
been reported as off the coast, the captain-general still 
refused to believe that this was the hostile expedition ; 
insisting that it must be a homeward-bound convoy 
from Jamaica. On the morning of that day, he is said 
to have gone over to the Morro for the purpose of ob- 
serving in person the movements of the fleet; and 
when he found that the garrison of the fortress had 
been called out under arms by the teniente rey^ Don 
Dionisio Soler, he expressed his disapprobation of the 
proceeding — declaring it to be imprudent, and desiring 
that the troops might be sent back to their quarters. 



24 CUBA AND 

After mid-day, however, he received notice from the 
Morro that the ships of war were approaching the 
coast, and appeared from their manoeuvres to be pre- 
paring to effect a landing. Confounded by his own 
previous incredulity, the governor at length gave or- 
ders to prepare for a vigorous defence. The conster- 
nation produced by the ringing of alarm bells and the 
moving of artillery was extreme. Such of the inhab- 
itants as possessed arms made haste to put them in 
order, and those who were not so provided presented 
themselves at the sala real to ask for them ; but there 
were only 3500 muskets to be found, the greater part 
of them unfit for service, together with a few cara,- 
bines, sabres, and bayonets. These were soon distrib- 
uted ; but in the end a great number of people re- 
mained unarmed for want of the needful supplies. 
The juntas were again assembled, consisting of the 
captain-general, the teniente rey, the marques del real 
transporte, general of marines, and the commissary- 
general, Don Lorenzo Montalvo, to whom were added 
the Conde de Superunda, as viceroy of Peru, and Ma- 
jor-General Don Diego Tabares, as governor of Car- 
thagena, who happened to be then at the Havana on 
their return to Europe. Orders were issued by this 
junta to Colonel Don Carlos Caro to resist the landing 
of the enemy on the beach of Cogimar and Bacuranao, 
which they seemed to threaten ; adding to his own 
regiment, De Edimburgo, the rest of the cavalry then in 
the city, together with several companies of the infan- 
try of the line, and a few lancers, amounting altogether 
to about 3000 men. 

The expedition sailed from Spithead on the 5th of 
March, 1762. Its chief object was, after seizing on 
the French possessions in the West Indies, to make a 
descent on the Havana, which was justly considered 
as the principal key to the vast possessions of the 
Spanish crown in the two great divisions of the Amer- 
ica-n continent ; the possession of which would effectu- 



THE CUBANS. 25 

ally interrupt all communication between the Penin- 
sula and the Gulf of Mexico, and thereby give the 
court of the Catholic king a distaste for the alliance 
with that of St. Cloud. The first rendezvous of the 
forces to be combined with the original expedition was 
at Martinique, and Sir James Douglas was ordered to 
unite his squadron, stationed at Port Royal, Jamaica, 
with that of Sir George Pocock, at the Cape of St. 
Nicholas, in the island of St. Domingo. From this 
point of union the expedition had the choice of two 
courses in proceeding toward the Havana. That 
which would have been the more easy of execution was 
to sail down the southern side of the island, and doub- 
ling the western cape, present itself before the Havana, 
But as this would have occupied more time, which the 
maintenance of secrecy rendered valuable. Sir George 
Pocock resolved on following the shorter and more dif- 
ficult as well as dangerous course of the old Bahama 
channel, on the north side of the island. This resolu- 
tion had the double effect of taking the enemy unpre- 
pared, and of obstructing the only course by which the 
French could send relief from St. Domingo. On the 
27th of May the admiral hoisted his flag, and the 
whole convoys, consisting of 200 vessels of all classes, 
were soon under sail for the old Bahama passage. 
The Alarm and Echo frigates, sent in advance, dis- 
covered, on the 2d of June, five ships of the enemy, 
the frigate Tetis, the sloop of war Fenix, a brig, and 
two smaller vessels. An engagement immediately 
took place, in the issue of which one of the light ves- 
sels escaped, the other four being captured. On the 
evening of the 5th the Pan of Matanzas was visible ; 
and on the morning of the 6th, being then five leagues 
to the eastward of the Havana, the necessary orders 
were issued for the commanders of the boats of the 
squadron and the captains of the transports, with re- 
gard to the debarkation of the troops. This duty was 
intrusted to the Honorable Commodore Keppel, at 



26 CUBA AND 

whose disposal were placed six ships of the line, seve- 
ral frigates, and the large boats of the squadron. The 
admiral followed at two in the afternoon, with thirteen 
ships of the line, two frigates, the bomb vessels of the 
expedition, and thirty-six store boats. On presenting 
himself at the mouth of the harbor, for the double 
purpose of reconnoitering the enemy and making the 
feint of an attack to cover the operations of Commo- 
dore Keppel, he ascertained that twelve ships of the 
line and a number of merchant vessels were lying at 
anchor within it. On the following morning the admi- 
ral prepared his launches for landing a body of sailors 
and marines about four miles to the westward of the 
Havana. At the same time Lord Albemarle effected 
the landing of the whole of the troops, without opposi- 
tion, between the rivers Bacuranao and Cogimar, about 
six miles from the Morro. A body of men having 
appeared on the beach. Commodore Keppel directed 
the Mercury and Bonnetta corvettes to disperse them ; 
but a much greater number having soon afterward pre- 
sented themselves with the evident intention of disput- 
ing the passage of the Rio Cogimar with the main body 
of the expedition, Captain Hervey in the Dragon was 
sent to bombard the fort, which afforded the enemy 
protection, but which very soon surrendered, leaving a 
free passage for the advance of the invaders. 

From the prisoners taken on the 2d of June in the 
Tetis and Fenix, the presence of a naval force in the 
harbor became known to the English, together with 
the fact that most of the enemy's ships had completed 
their supplies of water, and were nearly ready for sea. 
Till then the governor, as has been stated, was almost 
wholly unprepared. The first notice he had of the 
actual approach of the expedition was obtained from 
the crew of the small schooner, which escaped from 
the pursuit of the Alarm and the Echo. As soon as 
he became convinced of the fact, the governor, as we 
have seen, assembled a council of war, composed of the 



THE CUBANS. • 27 

chief officers under his command. At this junta de 
guerra the plan of defence was arranged, and a firm 
resolution was taken to resist the invasion to the last 
extremity. The defence of the Morro, on the posses- 
sion of which the fate of the Havana in a great mea- 
sure depended, was intrusted to Don Luis de Velasco, 
commander of the Reyna ship of the line, to whose 
gallantry and perseverance Sir George Pocock, in his 
subsequent report to the admiralty, pays a just tribute 
of commendation. His second in command, the Mar- 
ques de Gonzales, commander of the Aquilon ship of 
the line, followed in all respects the example of Va- 
lesco, dying sword in hand in defence of his flag. The 
defence of the Punta Castle was in like manner as- 
signed to a naval officer, Don Manuel Briseno, who 
had a friend in the same branch of the service for his 
second in command. This arrangement gave deadly 
offence to the officers of the army, who thought them- 
selves unjustly superseded in the post of honor and of 
danger ; but it was urged in excuse, that naval officers 
were better acquainted than those of the infantry or 
the cavalry with the use of artillery; and as the naval 
squadron had become useless by being locked up in 
the harbor, this was the only way in which they could 
be advantageously employed. 

Before the governor could assemble the militia of 
the island under arms, he thought it necessary to de- 
clare war by proclamation against Great Britain. 
When his whole force was at length assembled, it was 
found in gross numbers greatly to exceed that of the 
invaders. It consisted of nine squadrons of cavalr}^, 
including in all 810 men ; the regiment of the Ha- 
vana TOO ; two battalions of the regiment de Espana 
1400 ; two battalions of the regiment de Aragon 
1400 ; three companies of artillery 300 ; seamen and 
marines of the squadron 9000 ; militia and people of 
color 14,000— making a grand total of 27,610. The 
greater part of the Spanish force was stationed in the 



28 CUBA AND 

town of Guanabacao, on the side of tlie bay opposite 
to the Havana, between the points where the invad- 
ing forces had landed, in order to prevent them from 
turning the head of the harbor and attacking the city 
by land. The British force was divided into five 
brigades, amounting, with detachments from Jamaica 
and North America, to a total of 14,041 land forces. 
At daybreak, on the 7tli, the troops were already on 
board the boats arranged in three divisions — the cen- 
tre commanded by the Honorable Augustus Hervey ; 
the right wing by Captains Barton and Drake ; and 
the left, by Captains Arbuthnot and Jekyl. The first 
brigade was also the first to land ; and as soon as the 
troops had formed on the beach, Lord Albemarle 
took the command, and marched in the direction of 
the city, which he did without further molestation 
as soon as the Cogimar batteries had been silenced. 
His excellency established his head quarters in Cogi- 
mar for the night ; the troops were served with rations 
under arms ; and several pickets were adva-nced to the 
eminences overlooking the Havana. After a succes- 
sion of attacks on the part of Lord Albemarle, and a 
continued bombardment of the castle, the Morro sur- 
rendered on the 30th of July, and the town itself on 
the 14th of August, succeeding. 

The spoils seized by the captors were of great value, 
and the distribution was a subject of much discontent ; 
and it must be admitted that the partition, which gave 
three or four pounds to a soldier or a sailor, whose life 
was equally exposed with that of his superiors, and 
100,000/. to an admiral or a commander-in-chief, was 
far from being impartial. In the distribution of the 
prize-money Sir George Pocock was placed on the 
same footing with Lord Albemarle, and Commodore 
Keppel with Lieutenant- General Elliot ; the shares of 
the two former having amounted to 122,697/. 10^. 6d. 
each, and those of each of the two seconds in command 
to 245539/. 10^. Id. The whole spoil was, in fact, 



THE CUBANS. • 29 

equally divided betT^'een tlie two services, having 
amounted altogether to 736,185/. 3s., or 368,092/. 
lis. 6d, each. But although the services and the 
chiefs were placed on an equality, the same rule could 
not be observed with the officers and privates. The 
share of a major-general was 6816/. 10s. Q^d. ; that 
of a brigadier- general, 1947/. lis. 7d. ; that of an 
officer of the staff, 564/. 14^. 6d. ; that of a captain, 
184/. is. 7id. ; that of a subaltern, 116/. 3^. Oid. ; 
that of a sergeant, 8/. 18^. 8d. ; that of a corporal, 
61. 16s. 6c/., and that of a private soldier, 4/. Is. Shd. 
The share of a captain in the navy was 1600/. 10s. 
lOd. ; of a lieutenant, 234/. 13^. SM. ; of other com- 
missioned officers, 118/. 5s. Hid. ; of warrant officers, 
IT/. 5s. Sd., and of ordinary seamen, 3/. 14^. 9ld. 

The peace having been concluded in 1763, the Conde 
de Ricla arrived at the Havana on the 30th of June, 
bringing the powers conferred by the treaty for the 
restoration of the British conquests in the island of 
Cuba, and accompanied by General O'Reilly, with 
four ships of the line, a number of transports, and 
2000 men for the supply of the garrison. On their 
arrival they were received by the English with every 
demonstration of respect. On the 7th of July the 
keys of the city were formally delivered up to the 
Conde de Ricla, on whom the government had been 
conferred, and the English garrison was embarked on 
its return to Europe. 

The restoration of the island to the Spaniards is 
regarded by the native writers as the true era from 
whence its aggrandizement and prosperity is to be 
dated. It was during the administration of the first 
governor that the new fortresses of Sa,n Carlos and 
A tares were erected, and the enlargement and rebuild- 
ing of the Morro and the Cabanas were begun. The 
old hospitals were placed on a better footing, and new 
ones were built. The court of accounts, and the whole 
department of finance, received a fresh impulse and a 



30 CUBA AND 

distinct form; and an intendant was named, who, 
among other arrangements, for the first time estab- 
lished the aduana, and created a custom-house reve- 
nue, the duties having been first levied on the 15th of 
October, 1764. 

The Conde de O'Reilly, as inspector-general of the 
army, succeeded in organizing and placing on a respect- 
able footing the regular troops, as well as the militia 
of the island. The city of the Havana having been 
divided into districts, the streets named, and the 
houses numbered, the truth came to be known, that 
the capital contained materials for the formation of a 
battalion of disciplined white militia. Beginning with 
the formation of a single company, the governor ap- 
pointed lieutenants, sergeants, and corporals from the 
regular troops of the garrison, and, after a personal 
inspection, he followed the same course with the other 
companies. Adopting this principle in the other towns 
of the island, he soon succeeded in realizing his ideas, 
and creating a considerable force on which the govern- 
ment had every reason to rely. When the two white 
battalions of the Havana and Guanabacao were com- 
pleted, it was still found that, with the addition of the 
stationary regiment of regulars and the other troops of 
the garrison, there would not be a sufficient force for 
the defence of the capital, so that the idea of forming 
two other battalions presented itself, the one of blacks, 
the other of people of color, and was immediately car- 
ried into effect. 

Don Diego Manrique assumed the supreme com- 
mand in 1765, but died within a few months after his 
arrival. He was succeeded in 1766 by Don Antonio 
Maria Bucarely, who prosecuted with energy the con- 
struction of the fortifications begun by the Conde de 
Ricla. Bucarely paid great attention to the due ad- 
ministration of justice, and was distinguished by the 
affability of his manners, the facility he afforded of 
access to his person, and the readiness with which he 



THE CUBANS. 31 

heard and redressed the grievances of the people; 
making it a boast that he had succeeded in adjusting 
differences and compromising lawsuits which had been 
pending for forty years. When afterward appointed 
viceroy of New Spain, the minister for the department 
of the Indies announced to him, by command of the 
king, as an unexampled occurrence, that during the 
whole period of his administration not a single com- 
plaint against him had reached the court of Madrid. 
Another of his merits with the people was the gentle- 
ness and address with which he effected the expulsion 
of the Jesuits, who had come to the island with Don 
Pedro Augustin Morel, and had acquired there large 
possessions. The church attached to their seminary 
is that which is now the cathedral of the Havana. 

On the promotion of Bucarely in 1771, the Marques 
de la Torre was named his successor, and became one of 
the most popular captains -general who have ever admin- 
istered the government. He was replaced in 1777 by 
Don Diego Jose Navarro, who introduced great im- 
provements in the administration of justice, and the 
police of the tribunals, and in regulating the duties 
and functions of the abogados, escribanoSy procura- 
dores, tasadores, and other officers and dependents of 
the courts of law, in which the greatest abuses had 
previously, and have since prevailed. The base and 
deteriorated coin, which had been for some time 
in circulation was also called in and abolished in the 
time of Navarro. In the course of the war which had 
again broken out between England and Spain, an ex- 
pedition was prepared at the Havana for the recovery 
of the Floridas, which produced the surrender of Pen- 
sacola, and the submission of the garrison. This gave 
rise to a belief that the English would make reprisals 
on Cuba or Porto Rico, and led to the dispatch of re- 
inforcements on a large scale to the garrison of the 
Havana. The peace of 1783 soon followed, on which 
Lord Rodney prepared to return to England; and 



32 CUBA AND 

taking the Havana in his way, Prince William Henry, 
afterward William IV., having obtained leave from 
the admiral to go on shore, was so delighted with the 
city and the entertainments that were offered him, that 
he remained there three days, and did not return, if 
we may believe the Spanish writers, until Lord Rod- 
ney sent to his royal highness to say, that if he did not 
re-embark immediately, the squadron would set sail, 
and leave him behind. The Spanish general of ma- 
rines, Solano, is said to have given the prince a break- 
fast which cost him $4000. 

During the years which immediately succeeded the 
peace there appear to have been other changes in the 
colonial government besides those already noticed, be- 
ginning with Don Luis Gonzaga, followed by the Conde 
de Galves, Don Bernardo Troncoso, Don Jose Espe- 
ieta, and Don Domingo Cabello. " In the time of this 
first Espeleta there was again a great outcry as to the 
number of lawyers in the colony, and particularly at 
the Havana, where there were already no less than 
eighty-five abogados with an equally liberal proportion 
of the inferior classes of the profession. Steps were 
taken to prevent their increase, and a regulation was 
enforced on the 19th of November, 1T84, prohibiting 
the admission of candidates and the immigration of 
professors of jurisprudence from the other colonies ; 
and no lawyer who had studied his profession in Spain 
was to be allowed to practice it in the courts of the 
island until six years at least after he had been called 
to the bar in the Peninsula. 

Don Luis de las Casas arrived as captain-general in 
1790, and the period of his administration is repre- 
sented by all Spanish writers as a brilliant epoch in 
the history of the island. To him it is indebted for 
the institution of the Sociedad Patriotica, which has 
ever since done so much to stimulate the activity, and 
promote the improvement of education, agriculture, 
and trade, as well as literature, science, and the fine 



THE CUBANS. • 33 

arts, combined with large and liberal views of public 
policy. To Las Casas, also, is the island indebted for 
the establishment of the Casa de Beneficencia, hav- 
ing been begun by a voluntary subscription amount- 
ing to $36,000. The female department was at 
first a separate institution, situated in the extra- 
mural portion of the city, but was added to the other 
on the completion of the buildings in 1794. In 
place of a monument to Las Casas, which he un- 
doubtedly deserved as much as any of his prede- 
cessors, an inscription has ^been conspicuously en- 
graved in the common hall of the school for boys, 
declaring that on its erection it had been expressly 
dedicated to the memoiy of the founder of the institu- 
tion ; reminding the young pupils that he had not only 
been the founder of the Casa de Beneficencia, but of 
the first pubHc library, and the first newspaper which 
had existed in the island, and of the patriotic and eco- 
nomical society. 

To increase the commercial prosperity of the island 
he had the sagacity to perceive that his object could 
not be better accomplished than by removing as far as 
his authority extended all the trammels imposed upon 
it by the old system of privilege and restriction. Dur- 
ing his administration, also, large sums were expended 
in the construction of roads, especially the great Cal- 
zada del Hereon and the Calzada de Guadaloupe ; but 
since then these highways have fallen so completely 
out of repair, as for the greater part of the year to 
have become next to impassable. It was Las Casas, 
also, who introduced the culture of indigo ; and during 
his time the long arrear of causes on the rolls of the 
courts of justice was greatly reduced. The hurricane, 
which desolated the island on the 21st and 22d of 
June, 1791, afforded Las Casas a fresh opportunity 
for displaying the great resources of his mind in the 
promptitude with which he brought relief to the suffer- 
ers. In some districts the sudden rise of water in the 
2* 



31 CtTBA AND 

rivers was most extraordinary, when the limited ex- 
tent of land from sea to sea is considered. On the 
bridge then just finished across the Rio del Calabazal 
the water rose to the height of thirty-six feet above 
the parapets ; and in the town of San Antonio, where 
the wells are sunk into the bed of a subterraneous 
river, the water rushed up through the artificial open- 
ings, and inundated the whole country. 

The French revolution having communicated its 
irresistible impulse to the western parts of St. Do- 
mingo, the cabinet of Madrid took the alarm, and from 
the Havana and Santiago, Vera Cruz, the Caracas, 
Maracaybo, and Porto Rico, collected a force amount- 
ing altogether to 6000 men, the object of which was to 
suppress the insurrection. The sanguinary struggle 
which ensued, and the reverses which befell the Span- 
ish troops, belong to another place. Suffice it here to 
say, by way of memorandum, that the interest of the 
Spanish government in the island of St. Domingo was 
definitely terminated by the treaty of Basle, soon af- 
terward concluded with the French republic. It was 
to the energetic measures of Las Casas, at the time of 
this revolution in St. Domingo, that the island of Cuba 
was indebted for the uninterrupted maintenance of its 
tranquillity, in spite of the universal persuasion that a 
conspiracy had been formed at the instigation of the 
French, among the free people of color, to provoke a 
similar revolution in Cuba. On the occasion of his 
leaving the island in December, 1796, a formal eulo- 
gium on his merits as captain-general was recorded in 
the archives of the Ayuntamiento of the Havana, in 
which are enumerated the great benefits he had con- 
ferred on the community ; among which, the most 
prominent are the discouragement of gambling ; the 
arrest of vagrants and vagabonds ; the clearing of the 
gaols of greater criminals, and the acceleration of the 
ends of justice in civil causes ; the abandonment of a 
large portion of his own emoluments for the erection 



THE CUBANS. * B5 

and support of the Casa de Benejicencia and other 
charitable institutions ; the reduction and pacification 
of the maroons of Santiago ; the suppression of the 
conspiracy among the people of color ; the prohibition 
of the introduction of foreign negroes who had previ- 
ously resided in other colonies, and the expulsion of 
those who had arrived from St. Domingo ; the relief 
of the inhabitants from the clothing of the militia ; the 
paving of the streets of the Havana ; the making and 
mending of roads ; the building of bridges, and the 
construction of public walks and alamedas ; the erec- 
tion of a convent, a coliseum, a primary school, a 
school of chemistry, natural philosophy, mathematics 
and botany ; the improvement of the Plaza de Toros, 
and the rejection of the profit which his predecessors 
had derived from the supply of provisions for the 
troops. In this farewell eulogium he is also praised 
for the very questionable virtue of promoting the gen- 
eral prosperity, by the copious introduction of Bozal 
negroes from the coast of Africa, which is stated to 
have greatly extended the cultivation of the sugar- 
cane, the bread-fruit tree, the cinnamon-tree, and 
other exotic plants of inestimable value. It is more 
easy to sympathize in the praises bestowed upon him 
for the great hospitality he showed to the unfortunate 
refugees from St. Domingo, and for the exertions he 
made and the liberality he evinced in the institution of 
the Patriotic Society, the formation of a public library, 
the publication of the Diario, and of the Guia de Fo- 
rasteros. 

Las Casas, in 1796, was succeeded in the govern- 
ment by the Conde de Santa Clara, whose noble and 
generous disposition, and the affability of his manners, 
made the loss of his predecessor less sensibly felt. It 
is admitted, however, that he gave no encouragement 
to education, that he had no taste for letters, and 
that in his time the social emulation which had pre- 



36 CUBA AND 

viously prevailed sunk rapidly into apathy and indif- 
ference. 

It is a singular illustration of tlie dilatory habits of 
the people, and affords a sort of national characteristic, 
that for many years after the formal cession to the 
French of all interest in St. Domingo, the judges who 
exercised the supreme civil jurisdiction over the island 
of Cuba and other Spanish settlements continued to 
reside in the ceded territory, so that, in consequence 
of the recommencement of hostilities with England, all 
communication by sea was so interrupted as to inter- 
pose an insurmountable barrier to the exercise of the 
right of appeal, and to the ordinary administration of 
justice. The royal cedula, for the removal of this tri- 
bunal to Puerto Principe, is dated on the 22d of May, 
1T9T ; but it does not appear at what precise date the 
actual translation took place. 

Santa Clara was succeeded, in 1T99, by the Mar- 
ques de Someruelos, whose administration continued 
for a much longer period than the five years to which, 
by the practice, if not by a formal regulation of the 
Spanish government, the term of service of the cap- 
tains-general of the colonies has been usually limited. 
The public works which serve to commemorate the 
administration of Someruelos are the old theatre and 
the public cemetery ; the execution of which last was 
confided to the bishop, who pursued the object with 
zeal, and the work was completed on the 2d of Febru- 
ary, 1806. Its extent is not great, containing only 
22,000 square yards ; but the walls, the chapel, and 
the gateway, are on a scale which infers the outlay of 
a large sum of money. The chapel is ornamented 
with a painting in fresco representing the Resurrec- 
tion, with the motto, " Ecce nunc in pulvere dor- 
miam." Someruelos was thought by some to be stern 
and severe toward the poorer classes of society, and to 
reserve all his affability and condescension for the rich. 
On the occasion, however, of the great fire of 1802, 



THE CUBANS. * 37 

which destroyed the populous suburb of Jesus Maria, 
leaving no less than 11,300 individuals without a roof 
to shelter them, the marques, moved by their distress, 
circumambulated the town, going actually from door to 
door to petition for their relief. 

The belief again gained ground at the Havana, in 
1807, that the English government contemplated a 
descent on the island ; and measures were taken in 
consequence to put it in a more respectable state of 
defence, although, from want of funds in the treasury, 
and the scarcity of indispensable supplies, the prospect 
of an invasion was sufficiently gloomy. The militia 
and the troops of the garrison were carefully drilled, 
and companies of volunteers were formed wherever 
materials for them could be found. The French, 
also, not content with mere preparations, made an 
actual descent on the island, first threatening Santi- 
ago, and afterward landing at Batabano. The in- 
vaders consisted chiefly of refugees from St. Domingo ; 
and their intention seems to have been to have taken 
possession with a view to colonize and cultivate a por- 
tion of the unappropriated, or at least unoccupied, ter- 
ritory on the south side of the island, as their country- 
men had formerly done in St. Domingo. Without 
recurring to actual force, the captain-general prevailed 
on them to take their departure by a peaceful offer of 
the means of transit either to St. Domingo or to 
France. 

The news of the abduction, by Napoleon, of the 
royal family of Spain reached the Havana by a private 
opportunity, at the moment when the cabildo was in 
session, when every member of it took a solemn oath 
to preserve the island for its lawful sovereign. The 
official intelligence did not reach the city till the 17th 
of July, 1808 ; when it was brought from Cadiz by 
the Intendant Don Juan de Aguilar y Amat, who ar- 
rived in the American ship Dispatch. The colonial 
government immediately declared war against Napo- 



38 CUBA AND 

leon ; and on the 20t}i, King Ferdinand VII. was pro- 
claimed with general applause. The intelligence from 
Spain and the resolution of the captain-general were 
immediately communicated to all the colonial authori- 
ties in Spanish America. The events in the Penin- 
sula soon began to be felt at the Havana ; but the 
demands of the French intruders for the recognition 
of their authority were disregarded, and the public 
dispatches which came from them were destroyed. 
The Infanta Dona Carlota made similar pretensions, 
but these, like those of the French, were j&rmly re- 
sisted. 

The foreign trade of the island was reduced to such 
an extremity by the events of the war, that the local 
authorities of the Havana, the ayuntamiento, and the 
consulado, began seriously to deliberate on the expe- 
diency of throwing the trade open, and admitting 
foreign supplies on the same terms with those from 
the Peninsula. There was some division of opinion ; 
but the majority were for a free competition on an 
equal footing between the Spaniard and the foreigner, 
on the ground that Spain alone was unable to purchase 
or consume the enormous mass of produce then ex- 
ported from the island ; and so it was accordingly 
decided. 

On the 21st and 22d of March, 1809, a serious dis- 
turbance arose, the object of which was to invite the 
return of the French to the island ; but this popular 
movement, although considered dangerous at the time, 
and viewed with alarm by the captain-general, was 
speedily put down by the display of jfirmness and reso- 
lution on the part of all who had any thing to lose, and 
by the prompt offer of their personal services for its 
suppression. Proclamations were issued, a respecta- 
ble force was collected, and the Marques de Some- 
ruelos presented himself in person to endeavor to 
pacify the discontented. Tranquillity was restored at 
the end of the second day, with the loss of only two 



THE CUBANS. , 39 

or three lives ; but not without the destruction of a 
great deal of property. The French settlers in the 
rural districts were, in this respect, the greatest suf- 
ferers ; and it had, in consequence, the effect of driv- 
ing away several thousands of laborious and intelligent 
colonists, who were already deeply interested in the 
prosperity of the island. 

Soon after these events a young man arrived from 
the United States, of whose proceedings and character, 
as an emissary of King Joseph, the colonial govern- 
ment had been previously informed. This unfortunate 
person, Don Manuel Aleman, was not even suffered to 
land. The alguazils went on board ; took possession 
of his papers and his person ; a council of war was 
immediately assembled : but his fate was determined 
beforehand; and on the following morning, the 13th 
of July, 1810, he was brought out to the Campo de la 
Punta, and hanged for his temerity. 

The revolutionary proceedings in the continental 
provinces of Spain were now in full career toward that 
independence of the mother-country which they have 
since achieved. In the mean time, the island of Cuba 
enjoyed a degree of tranquillity quite remarkable under 
the circumstances of the sister colonies. This state 
of things was naturally, and not unjustly, ascribed to 
the political prudence and sagacity of the Marques de 
Someruelos. The colonial authorities petitioned the 
cabinet of Madrid for the farther prorogation of his 
government beyond the term to which it had been al- 
ready extended. But the very fact of his having given 
so much satisfaction to the colonists, if we may judge 
from experience elsewhere, was not likely to operate 
with the government of the mother-country in deciding 
on a farther extension of his stay. Instead of acced- 
ing to the prayer of the municipal functionaries of the 
Havana, the government of Madrid thought fit to mark 
its sense of the interference by instantly recalling the 
title of " Excellencia," which, on a former occasion, 



40 CUBA AND 

had been granted to the ayuntamiento as a special 
mark of the royal favor, and of which they were not a 
little proud. 

The western districts of the island were visited, in 
1810, by another of those tremendous hurricanes, 
which sweep away so much life and property in these 
tropical regions. The city of the Havana was filled 
with consternation and dismay ; the hopes of an abun- 
dant harvest were disappointed ; in the harbor, so re- 
nowned for its security, the ships of war were driven 
from their anchors ; and no less than sixty merchant 
vessels were destroyed. 

In the time of Someruelos the Casa de Beneficencia 
was in danger of falling into decay ; but in conse- 
quence of his earnest intervention, the Junta de Taba- 
cos, which in Spain as in France is a royal monopoly, 
consented to purchase 100 slaves, whose labor or whose 
wages were to furnish funds for the benefit of the in- 
stitution ; thus by an extraordinary perversion making 
the practice of cruelty and injustice toward one por- 
tion of the human family contribute to a work of char- 
ity in favor of another. The slaves were at first 
employed in the manufacture of cigars, but have lat- 
terly been hired out for daily wages at whatever em- 
ployment they could obtain. 

A negro conspiracy broke out in 1812, wliich ex- 
cited considerable alarm in the minds of the landed 
proprietors. That alarm was attended with its usual 
consequences : the negro leader Aponte and his asso- 
ciates were treated with unsparing severity, such as 
may be supposed to have been dictated much more by 
the fears of the hacendados, than by the strict justice 
of the case. 

The successor of Someruelos was Don Juan Ruiz de 
Apodaca, afterward Conde de Benadito, who arrived 
on the 14th of April, 1812 ; and he, for the first time-, 
combined the command of the naval force on the sta- 
tion with the office of captain-general of the island. 



THE CUBANS. ^ 41 

This unprecedented combination arose from the fear 
of the authors of the constitution of Cadiz, that their 
work and their representative would not be well re- 
ceived in this aristocratical colony. His first duty on 
his arrival was to proclaim the constitution ; and al- 
though it doubtless excited an extraordinary sensation, 
it was not openly resisted. 

The success of Apodaca in Cuba led to his promo- 
tion to the rank of viceroy of Mexico ; and on the 1st 
of July, 1816, he was succeeded at the Havana by 
Lieutenant- General Don Jose Cienfuegos. In his time 
the third census of the island was accomplished. This 
captain-general made himself exceedingly unpopular at 
the Havana by the severe measures of police he pro- 
claimed and enforced for the suppression of projects 
of sedition, and for the preservation of the public tran- 
quillity. He resorted to an expedient which in other 
great cities would scarcely have become the subject 
of serious complaint — ^he caused the streets of the 
Havana to be lighted ; but this was only a part of the 
proceeding to which the citizens objectecl. He in- 
sisted, also, on closing up the public thoroughfares 
immediately after the conclusion of the evening service 
in the churches ; thus from that early hour confining 
the inhabitants to their own particular quarter of the 
city, and giving rise to clamorous representations and 
to the very disturbances which it was the object of the 
captain-general to prevent. 

Senor Cienfuegos was for some time disabled by 
personal infirmity from the active administration of 
the government, and during that period his functions 
were performed by Don Juan Maria Echeverri, as 
cabo subalterno ; but on the 29th of August, 1819, he 
was finally relieved by the arrival of his successor, 
Don Juan Manuel Cagigal, in the Spanish ship of war 
Sabina, with a convoy of troops for the supply of the 
garrison. 

The following year, 1820, from the events which 



42 CUBA AND 

took place in tlie Peninsula, was another period of 
trial and difficulty for a captain-general of the Ha- 
vana ; but it is admitted by all parties that Cagigal 
succeeded, by the prudence and delicacy of his con- 
duct, in avoiding the evils which might have been 
expected to arise from the difficult and extraordinary 
circumstances in which he found himself placed. The 
extreme affiibility of his manners, and the perfect 
readiness with which he received and listened to all 
who desired to approach him, conciliated universal 
good will ; and it appears that the high estimation in 
which he was held by the inhabitants excited in his 
breast a corresponding feeling, as, on the termination 
of his command, he applied for and obtained the spe- 
cial grace from the king of being permitted to take up 
his permanent abode in the island ; and having retired 
to the town of Guanabacao, he died there some time 
afterward a simple but respected citizen. 

The next captain-general was Don Nicolas Mahy, 
who arrived from Bordeaux in the French frigate 
Therese, on the 3d of March, 1821 ; but such was the 
turbulence which prevailed in these troublesome times 
that he proved unequal to the task of controlling the 
storm, and at length sunk under the difficulties which 
surrounded him. He died on the 18th of July, 1822, 
but retained to the last moment of his life the direct 
administration of the affiiirs of the government. 

After his death the government was assumed provi- 
sionally by the cabo subalterno, Don Sebastian Kinde- 
lan ; and on the 2d of May, 1823, the new captain- 
general arrived, Don Francisco Dionisio Vives, who 
was afterward raised to the dignity of Conde de Cuba. 
It was in his time that the fourth and last census of 
the island was accomplished. It was under Vives, 
also, that the rural militia was organized, and that the 
construction of the fortresses of Bahia-honda, Mariel, 
Jaruco, and the Cabanas was begun or completed. It 
was he who divided the island into three military de- 



THE CUBANS. * 43 

partments ; and it was under his auspices that the 
temple was erected on the Plaza de Armas of the 
Havana, on the very spot, where, if tradition is to be 
believed, the first Christian rite was performed in the 
New World. It is doubtless with the view of adding 
to the solemnity of the occasion that the temple is 
opened only once a yea,r, on the anniversary of the day 
that mass was first said there, in the presence of Co- 
lumbus, to return thanks to Heaven for the success 
which had attended his enterprise. It was also in the 
time of Vives that the two lunatic asylums, el Depar- 
tarnento de Dementes, were added to the Casa de 
Beneficencia ; and it is recorded of him that he never 
failed to preside at the meetings of the institution, and 
to animate by his presence the drooping zeal of his 
colleagues in the direction. 

On the 15th of May, 1832, Don Mariana Ricafort 
took possession of the government ; and on the 1st of 
June, 1834, he was succeeded by Don Miguel Tacon, 
whose administration terminated on the 16th of April, 
1838, when Don Joaquin de Espeleta, who had for 
some time resided at the Havana with the rank of 
sub-inspector-general of the troops, and second caho 
suhalterno^ was promoted to the rank of captain- 
general, not provisionally, as had been usual on former 
occasions, but como proprietario, to use a form of 
expression in constant use, as applied to public offices 
in the language of Castile as well as in that of France. 

General Espeleta marked his career by a straight- 
forward course, strongly exemplified in his putting 
down all obnoxious and costly practices to obtain li- 
censes and passports, which were favored, both by 
those preceding and succeeding him, from sordid and 
ignoble motives. His uprightness could not, however, 
wash out the political stain of his birth : for, by a 
mere chance, Espeleta was born at Havana. He was 
consequently soon removed, and before the regular 
term of five years, allotted to such offices in Spanish 



44 CUBA AND 

America. The Prince of Anglona, the next captain- 
general in order of time, was a gentlemanly and cour- 
teous chief who, after one year's command in 1841, 
left the charge of the island to the noble-minded Don 
Geronimo Valdez, a man whose whole life had evinced 
a consistent love of liberty, scarcely ever met with in a 
Spanish soldier, fOr such he was. Being informed 
that there was a conspiracy on foot, and that many 
young men talked in a revolutionary strain, he an- 
swered : "I have a powerful army at my command; 
let the conspirators sally forth, and I shall destroy 
them, but not before." This liberality to the Cubans, 
and his conciliating course toward the abolitionist 
Turnbull, who had landed at an unfortified part of the 
island, for some sinister purpose, among the blacks ; 
and more than all, his disinterested and faithful ob- 
servance of the treaties condemning the African slave 
trade, brought on him the unrestrained attacks of those 
engaged or concerned in it as capitalists or officials of 
government. He was consequently hurried from his 
station in the most unceremonious manner, and the 
party who vainly endeavored to injure his name, charg- 
ing him with motives treasonable to Spain, found in 
his successor a man better disposed to forward their 
selfish and sordid purposes, though for the same rea- 
son equally calculated to alienate the hearts of the in- 
habitants. Valdez had the courage and honesty to 
issue, during his short command, upward of a thou- 
sand grants of freedom illegally withheld by his pre- 
decessors from so many Africans who, according to 
the treaty, had become free. He left the palace of 
the captain-generals of Cuba in the same high-minded 
poverty in which he had entered it. 

In 1843, General Leopold O'Donnell took the com- 
mand of the island, and never was military despot- 
ism more successfully directed to destroy popular 
franchises, to establish individual oppression beyond 
the possibility of redress by altering existing institu- 



THE CUBANS. • 45 

tions, and eminently to satisfy the avaricious thirst of 
the captain-general and his family and favorites. The 
bloody page of the negro insurrection, reported in an- 
other part of this work, was the most prominent fea- 
ture of his governorship. At the close of one of 
General O'DonnelPs balls, his wife sent for the baker 
who had supplied the entertainment, to come at 3 
o'clock A. M., to take back the loaves not used ! 
The baker refused, saying that he could not sell them 
except as stale bread, at a very reduced price. To 
this she replied that she had sent for him at so early 
an hour that he might have the chance of mixing it 
with the fresh bread he was to send around to his cus- 
tomers that morning. She was engaged in all kinds 
of profitable undertakings of the most obscure and com- 
mon pursuits in life ; monopolies of the most repug- 
nant character were introduced for her advantage, 
based on the unbounded authority of a provincial 
tyrant. The cleansing of the sewers, and the locality 
fixed for the reception of the manure and dirt of the 
city were among the many sources of wealth which she 
did not scruple to turn to her advantage. But nothing 
was so fruitful to this family of dealers, as the slave 
trade which, it was publicly asserted, furnished emolu- 
ments even to the daughter of the captain-general. 
O'Donnell was part owner of the marble quarries of 
the Isle of Pines, whither he, by his sole authority, 
sent to labor a great number of suspected or accused 
persons, without judgment or sentence passed on them. 
The agency for obtaining passports, and other services 
connected with government, as published in the Ha- 
vana papers, exhibits a degree of immorality and defi- 
ance of public opinion hardly to be found in any civil- 
ized country. 

General Frederico Roncali, graced by one of the nu- 
merous titles which Queen Christina has so profusedly 
and undeservedly bestowed within a very recent period, 
took the command of the island in 1848. His ridicu- 



46 CUBA AI>^D 

lous and perplexed action during the movement of the 
Round Island expedition, show how weak the strength 
of bayonets is, where it is unsupported either by the 
confidence of the soldiery, or by the love of the people 
for their rulers. The idea of marching out 4000 men, 
and stationing them in the central department of the 
island, and announcing to the soldiers that they were 
to receive double pay as soon as the enemy landed, 
merely because 400 Americans had taken their abode 
in an island TOO miles off, is a tacit acknowledgment of 
the impending termination of Spanish rule in Cuba — 
that tottering column of European despotism in Amer- 
ica. General Roncali's incapacity was never made 
more manifest, however, than in his management of the 
Key affair. Don Cirilo Villaverde, author of a novel en- 
titled " Cecilia Valdez," and other literary works, being 
accused of corresponding with the editor of the Cuban 
paper called La Verdad, was confined to the Havana 
prison during his trial, which he had no reason to ex- 
pect should be fair or favorable in its results to him. 
While there, a fraudulent bankrupt, by name Fernan- 
dez, being on the eve of escaping, through promises 
made to the jail -keeper Rey, of sharing with him the 
imaginary spoils of his bankruptcy, Mr. Villaverde suc- 
ceeded in availing himself of the same opportunity to 
fly, and save himself, rather than trust to his innocence 
or the irregularity and corruption of Spanish military 
justice. The result, fully establishing the moral weak- 
ness of a government whose very agents turn against it, 
served to excite the anger and spiteful revenge of 
Roncali. He therefore succeeded, through the consul 
at New Orleans, Don Carlos Espana, in abducting the 
jail-keeper, who was thereby destined to be severely 
punished, or generously rewarded should he act as 
witness against such influential Creoles as were sus- 
pected of dissatisfaction to the Spanish government. It 
is not necessary to add any thing further on this sub- 
ject. The American public are sufficiently acquainted 



THE CUBANS. • 47 

■with the subsequent history of this ominous, sacrile- 
gious, and insulting act of the authorized menial of a 
European monarch on the heretofore respected soil of 
America. 

Whatever moral qualities and honest wishes some of 
the captain-generals may have possessed, they were 
compelled to follow out the restrictions and spoliations 
commenced by Tacon. The path of despotism, when 
justified by the national excuse of holding a distant 
colony, must always be one of inevitable and progress- 
ive oppression. 

The historical sketch of Cuba is here concluded. 
The next chapter is designed to furnish an abstract of 
its political history, including a notice of the late in- 
surrection, with an account of the remarkable policy 
which has brought the island to its present miserable 
condition. 



48. CUBA AND 



CHAPTER II. 

Political sketch previous to the XlXth century. — Indiau population. — 
The Island a military post. — Commerce and Navigation. — Foreign 
trade. — Restrictions on trade. — Situation of Spain. — Political 
changes in 1812 and 1820. — The Constitution proclaimed. — Ma- 
sonic Societies. — The old Spaniards, — Royal Order of 182.5. — Count 
Villanueva. — Dangers of the Slave Trade. — Despotic Encroach- 
ments. — Rejection of the Cuban Deputies at Madrid. — General Ta- 
con. — His Tyranny and Venality. — His Removal eifected by a Com- 
promise. — Fear of a servile Insurrection. — Cruel measures taken 
against the Creoles and free people of Color. — The work of the 
Countess of Merlin. — Anecdotes. — Insurrections in different parts 
of the Island. Enormities practiced by the officials of Govern- 
ment. — Their effect upon the native Cubans. — Present distressing 
Situation of the Island. 

Previous to the eighteentli century, the history of 
the island of Cuba is mostly occupied with accounts of 
the settlements commenced by the first governor, Diego 
Velasquez ; the noble defence of the Cazique Athuei, 
who was burned alive by order of the former ; and the 
usual repartimientos or distribution of the territory and 
Indians among the Spanish settlers, which, through ex- 
cess of labor, hastened the depopulation of the country. 
During that early period is also noticed the sailing of 
expeditions to more recently discovered and alluring 
regions ; the beginning of the African slave trade ; and 
the occasional descent and depredations of the buc- 
caneers. The latter were so bold, from the scant pop- 
ulation and absence of fortifications, that they carried 
off at one time the venerable Bishop Cabezas Altanu- 
rano, and at another, the very bells of the church and 
the cannons of the castle at St. lago. 

Soon after the royal decree of 1530, liberating the 
native Indians, the remnants of this unfortunate race 
appeared to have congregated in towns such as Guana- 



THE CUBANS. ^ 49 

bacoa, Guaisabana, Ovejas, and Caneyes-arriba, and to 
have applied their efforts to simple husbandry and graz- 
ing. 

But the advance of Cuba must have been extremely 
limited or doubtful, since the Bishop Almendares esti- 
mated the population of all the towns and cities in 1612 
at 6700 inhabitants. 

The truth lies in the fact that, after having exhausted 
the Indian population, the island was only held as a 
military post on the way to the mines of Mexico, with 
little else to occupy its reduced population than the 
raising of cattle, on lands not appropriated. Till the 
latter years of the past century, commerce was not only 
confined to Spanish merchantmen, but to the periodical 
voyage of the fleet belonging to the privileged India 
Company. Foreign trade has only been authorized in 
the present century, when the European wars, forcing 
the Spanish flag from the seas, and the encroachment 
of contraband trade, made it impossible to oppose it. 

In the laws and municipal rights of Cuba, we notice 
the same independent and liberal spirit which prevailed 
in all the settlements of Spain among the Moors, or 
elsewhere, as far as the Spanish settlers and their de- 
scendants were concerned. Thus in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, public assemblies of citizens were 
held to elect the members of the corporations ; free and 
bold charges made and sustained against governors ; 
and no taxation was permitted which was not sanc- 
tioned by these bodies, who exercised the same preroga- 
tives in the Spanish peninsula, during the long suspen- 
sion of representative government. As to the commer- 
cial restrictions w^hich prevented the growth of this 
beautiful garden of America, they did not originate in 
any right, expressed or implied, to control the fate of 
Cuba, on the part of the European provinces, but in 
the peculiar notions of the age on matters of political 
economy. Equally injudicious was the system observed 
in the internal trade and relations between the several 
3 



50 CUBA AND 

Spanisn provinces themselves, whose wealth and phys- 
ical advance are to this day obstructed by antiquated 
prejudices. Aside, therefore, from the measures adopt- 
ed to nationalize the commerce and trade of Cuba, or 
rather to direct their course by legislation, there was 
not, until the last twenty years, any serious precedent 
or open effort to justify a difference between the po- 
litical rights of the Cubans and the Spaniards on the 
soil of Cuba. Were the conquest held as the founda- 
tion of such difference, the privilege should certainly 
attach to the descendants of those who shed their blood 
and used their means in the acquisition of the country 
— not to the recent emigration, much less to the sala- 
ried officers of the government. 

The recognition of the popular principle in the Soci- 
edad Patriotica and Consulado, established near the 
close of the eighteenth century, and the vast influence 
derived therefrom, and which, in after times, gave a 
liberal tinge to the local administration, is especially 
worthy of notice. 

Struggling for her own independence, and boldly con- 
fronting the ambitious and mighty chieftain of the age, 
Spain, at the opening of the nineteenth century, ap- 
peared in a noble attitude. Actuated by the most sa- 
cred impulses of patriotism, and intensely engaged in 
the wars and policy of Europe, she could not and did 
not refuse whatever was requested by the Cuban assem- 
blies. Cuba, on her part, repaid the liberality of the 
mother country by an unwavering loyalty. Unseduced 
by the alluring prospect of independence, and undis- 
mayed by repeated invasions from foreign powers, she 
shut her eyes to the former, and boldly resisted the 
latter, at the liberal expense of the treasures of the 
island and the lives of the inhabitants. 

This brings us to a period marked by fluctuations 
in the political history of Spain and her dependen- 
cies, and it is now to be seen what were their effect 
upon Cuba. 



THE CUBANS. * 51 

The political changes adopted in Spain in 1812 and 
1820 were productive of similar changes in the island ; 
and when in both instances the constitution was pro- 
claimed, the perpetual members of the municipalities 
were at once deprived of office, and their successors 
elected by the people. The provincial assembly was 
called, and held its sessions. The militia was organ- 
ized ; the press made entirely free, the verdict of a 
jury deciding actions for its abuses ; and the same 
courts of justice were in no instance to decide a case a 
second time. But if the institution of the consulado 
was very beneficent during Ferdinand's absolute sway, 
the ultra-popular grants of the constitutional system, 
which could hardly be exercised with quiet in Spain, 
were ill-adapted to Cuba, though more advanced in 
civilization, stained with all those vices that are the 
legitimate curse of a country long under despotic sway. 
That system was so democratic, that the king was de- 
prived of all political authority. No intermediate 
house of nobility or senators tempered the enactments 
of a single elective assembly. This sudden change 
from an absolute government, with its usual concom- 
itant, a corrupt and debased public sentiment, to the 
full enjoyment of republican privileges, served only to 
loosen all the ties of decency and decorum throughout 
the Spanish community. Infidelity resulted from it ; 
and that veil of respect for the religion of their fathers, 
which had covered the deformity of such a state of 
society, was imprudently thrown aside. As the natu- 
ral consequence of placing the instruments of freedom 
in the hands of an ignorant multitude, their minds 
were filled with visions of that chimerical equality 
which the world is never to realize. The rich found 
themselves deprived of their accustomed influence, and 
felt that there was little chance of obtaining justice 
from the common people (in no place so formidable as 
in Cuba, from the heterogeneous nature of the popula- 
tion), and who were now, in a manner, arrayed against 



52 CUSA AND 

them throughout the land. They, of course, eagerly 
wished the return of the old system of absolute rule. 
But the proprietors only asked for the liberal policy 
which they had enjoyed at the hands of the Spanish 
monarch ; not, most surely, that oppressive and non- 
descript government which, by separating the interest 
of the country from that of her nearest rulers, and' 
destrojdng all means of redress or complaint, thrust 
the last offspring of Spain into an abyss of bloodshed 
and ruin, during the recent disgusting exercise of mili- 
tary rule, in punishing by the most arbitrary and cruel 
measures, persons suspected of engaging in an appre- 
hended servile insurrection. 

During the second period of democratic, or what 
was called constitutional government, which com- 
menced in 1820, the masonic societies came into vogue 
as they did in the mother- country. They adopted 
different plausible pretexts, though to speak the truth, 
they were little more than clubs for amusement and 
revelry. One of them, called the " Soles de Bolivar,^^ 
went so far as to discuss whether, in case of a Colum- 
bian invasion, it would be more expedient to avoid a 
collision in the presence of the slaves, by giving way 
peaceably before the invading army. Happily for 
Cuba, and certainly in consequence of the judicious 
interference of the United States, which foresaw in the 
preservation of its tranquillity the advantages of a 
fruitful commerce, the invasion did not take place. 
And if the island has since had to lament the gradual 
encroachments of the executive, in all the several 
branches of its politics and administration, it has also 
been preserved from the sanguinary results which the 
premature establishment of ultra free institutions has 
produced in all tlie numerous countries which once 
formed the dominion of Spain in America. For the 
difficulty of annexation, from the lesser influence the 
United States then possessed among nations and the 
controlling importance of the shipping interest in tha-t 



THE CUBANS. ^ 53 

countr}^, made it unadvisable for Cuba to launch into 
a revolution unsustained, and in this way to experience 
a severe scourge, which, at that time, would have proved 
the principal if not the only fruits of independence to 
the first generation of its recipients. Under any cir- 
cumstances the subsequent jealous policy of the Span- 
ish government has been altogether unwarranted. 

For the discussions of the " Soles de Bolivar^' were 
owing to the countenance which the liberal government 
gave to those very societies ; a thing entirely uncalled 
for among a people permitted to meet freely and name 
a portion of their rulers ; and where, too, for political 
ends, no property qualification was required ; a relin- 
quishment which, however justified in a country like 
the United States, where constitutional rights have 
been exercised ever since colonial times, could not be 
safely overlooked in one just emerging from a despotic 
though beneficent government, and whose population 
comprehended such discordant elements. 

A respectable portion of the old Spaniards residing 
in Cuba, were themselves desirous of upholding the 
constitutional system in the island which they saw tot- 
tering in Spain. General Vives, who commanded at 
that time, regarded the circumstance with anxious so- 
licitude, and very reasonably inferred that, if the con- 
stitution of 1812 was sustained in Cuba after the 
king's absolute power was acknowledged in Spain, the 
consequences would be fatal to its dependence, how- 
ever rational and honest the views of the constitution- 
alists might be considered. Hence his strenuous ef- 
forts in 1824, after the restoration of Ferdinand, to 
make the most of the wild and varjdng schemes which 
had been proposed in the " Soles de Bolivar,^^ under the 
democratic institutions, and the relaxation of the reins 
of government before mentioned. The greatly reduced 
Spanish military force at that time in the island, and 
the fact that much of it consisted of regular regi- 
ments and native militia, are sufficient proof that to 



5i €UBA AND 

the solid good sense of the inhabitants, rather than 
any show of strength, should be attributed the imme- 
diate disappearance of those germs of disquietude. 
Not even the weakness of General Kindelan could in- 
duce the planters to lose sight of their chief interest. 
Though General Vives subsequently desired to impress 
the constitutional party with the idea that they might 
be carried farther than they meant to go, and with 
that view took especial care that a well-concerted 
scheme for throwing off the Spanish yoke should ap- 
pear to have been devised, it must be acknowledged, 
that notwithstanding he caused the prosecution and 
imprisonment of many individuals, and occasionally 
the ruin and misery of their families, he oftentimes 
also interfered to mitigate the appalling and unavoida- 
ble excesses of those menials of government who are 
ever ready, under such circumstances, to exceed the 
wishes of the leading statesmen, and to make political 
difficulties subservient to the vilest purposes. That 
which should have warned the Spanish ministry of the 
inexpediency of establishing such inappropriate insti- 
tutions, brought upon the island all its subsequent 
misfortunes ; namely, the Royal Order of 1825, which 
is the existing law of the land, and which, translated, 
reads as follows : 

War Department. The king our master, in whose 
royal mind great confidence has been inspired by your 
excellency's proved fidelity, indefatigable zeal in his 
majesty's service, judicious and well-concerted steps 
taken since Y. E. had charge of the government, in 
order to keep in quietude his faithful inhabitants, con- 
fine within the proper limits such as would deviate 
from the path of honor, and punish such as forgetting 
their duties would dare commit excesses in opposi- 
tion to our wise laws ; well convinced as H. M. feels, 
that at no time and under no circumstances whatever 
will the principles of rectitude and love toward H. M. 



THE CUBANS. ^ 55 

royal person be weakened whicli now distinguish Y. 
E. ; and being at the same time desirous of prevent- 
ing the embarrassments which under extraordinary cir- 
cumstances might arise from a division in the com- 
mand, and from the complicated authority and powers 
of the different officers of government, for the import- 
ant end of maintaining in that island his sovereign 
authority and the public quiet, it has pleased H. M., 
in conformity with the advice of his council of minis- 
ters, to authorize your excellency, fully investing you 
with the whole extent of power which by the royal 
ordinances is granted to the governors of besieged 
towns. In consequence thereof H. M. most amply 
and unrestrictedly authorizes Y. E. not only to re- 
move from that island such persons, holding offices 
from government or not, whatever their occupation, 
rank, class, or situation in life may be, whose resi- 
dence there you may believe prejudicial, or whose pub- 
lic or private conduct may appear suspicious to you, 
employing in their stead faithful servants of H. M., 
who shall fully deserve your excellency's confidence ; 
but also to suspend the execution of whatever royal 
orders or general decrees in all the different branches 
of the administration, or in any part of them, as Y. 
E. may think conducive to the royal service ; it be- 
ing in any case required that these measures be tem- 
porary, and that Y. E. make report of them for his 
majesty's sovereign approval. 

In granting Y. E. this marked proof of his royal 
esteem, and of the high trust your proven loyalty de- 
serves, H. M. expects that in due correspondence to 
the same, Y. E. will use the most wakeful prudence 
and reserve, joined to an indefatigable activity and 
unyielding firmness, in the exercise of your excellen- 
cy's authority, and trusts that as your excellency shall 
by this very pleasure and graciousness of H. M. be 
held to a, more strict responsibility, Y. E. will redou- 
ble his vigilance that the laws be observed, that justice 



56 CUBA AND 

be administered, that H. M. faithful vassals be pro- 
tected and rewarded, and punishment without par- 
tiality or indulgence inflicted on those who, forgetful 
of their duty and their obligations to the best and 
most benevolent of monarchs, shall oppose those laws, 
decidedly abetting sinister plots, with infraction of 
them and disregard of the decrees from them issuing. 
And I therefore, by royal order, inform Y. E. of the 
same for Y. E.'s intelligence, satisfaction, and exact 
observance thereof. God preserve your excellency's 
life. Madrid, 28 May, 1825. Aimerich. 

By this it will be seen that Cuba has been, since 
1825, and now is, under " martial law," the captain- 
general being invested " with the whole extent of 
power granted to the governors of besieged towns, ^^ 

The sad effects of this royal order, which the king 
only meant to be observed temporarily, and under a 
strict responsibility, " le mas estrecta responsibilidad," 
were not immediately felt. " Truth and justice com- 
pel me to assert," says one of the most enlightened 
Cubans, on being rejected from the Cortes, in common 
with all the deputies from the province, " that not- 
withstanding the terrible authority conferred on the 
captain-general by this royal order. Vivos, who then 
held that office, far from putting it in execution during 
his long government, discovered that its application 
would be equally disadvantageous to Cuba and Spain. 
Under a mild and conciliatory policy this island be- 
came the refuge of many unhappy prescripts, who 
were expelled from the Peninsular territory by the arm 
of tyranny." 

The judicious administration of the Count Villa- 
neuva, as intendant, which had undoubtedly an influ- 
ence materially advantageous to the country, was like- 
wise calculated to make every one forget the depressed 
political condition to which the new law had reduced 
the inhabitants of Cuba. Under its fearful and com- 



THE CUBANS. , 57 

prehensive provisos, since become the scourge of the 
land, public bodies were respected. Some of them 
constantly consulted together on grave subjects, such 
as the rural and domestic police for the management 
of slaves, the imposition of taxes and judiciary reform, 
and enjoyed the privilege of printing their reports, 
without applying for the consent of the executive 
officers ; and the press was moreover very far from 
being restricted as it now is. 

As a proof that the political servitude created by 
the royal order of 1825 was not intended to be perma- 
nent, an extract is made from an article on the dan- 
gers of the slave trade, published in a periodical of 
Havana, in 1832, under the despotic government of 
Ferdinand, and seven years after issuing the royal 
order above referred to. Immediately following a very 
precise detail of facts, of the numbers of imported 
slaves, and of the relative position of the races, we 
read : 

" Thus far we have only considered the power which 
has its origin in the numbers of the colored population 
that surrounds us. What a picture we might draw, 
if we were to portray this immense body acting under 
the influence of political and moral causes, and pre- 
senting a spectacle unknown in history ! We surely 
shall not do it. But we should be guilty of moral 
treason to our country, if we were to forget the efforts 
now making to effect a change in the condition of the 
African race. Philanthropic laws, enacted by some 
of the European nations, associations of distinguished 
Englishmen, periodicals solely devoted to this subject, 
eloquent parliamentary debates whose echoes are con- 
stantly repeated on this side the Atlantic, bold exhort- 
ations from the pulpits of religious sects, political prin- 
ciples which with lightning rapidity are spreading in 
both hemispheres, and very recent commotions in seve- 
ral parts of the West Indies, every thing is calculated 
to awaken us from our profound slumber and remind 



53 CUBA AND 

US that we must save our country. And should this 
our beloved mother ask us what measures we have 
adopted to extricate her from her danger, what would 
those who boast themselves her dutiful sons, ans^werl 
The horrid traffic in human blood is carried on in defi- 
ance of the laws, and men who assume the name of 
patriots, being no other than parricides, cover the land 
with shackled victims. And as if this were not suffi- 
ciently fearful, with criminal apathy, Africans freed 
and brought to this country by English policy, are per- 
mitted to reside in our midst. How different the con- 
duct of our neighbors the Americans ! Notwithstand- 
ing the rapid increase of their country ; notwithstand- 
ing the white has constantly been four fifths more 
numerous than the colored population, and have ten 
and a half millions to offset two millions ; notwith- 
standing the importation of the latter is prohibited 
from one end of the republic to the other, while Eu- 
ropean immigration is immense ; notwithstanding the 
countries lying upon their boundaries have no slaves 
to inspire dread, they organize associations, raise 
funds, purchase lands in Africa, establish colonies, 
favor the emigration of the colored population to them, 
increasing their exertions as the exigency may require, 
not faltering in their course, and leaving no expedient 
untried which shall prove them friends of humanity 
and their country. Not satisfied with these general 
measures, some states have adopted very thorough and 
efficient measures. In December, 1831, Louisiana 
passed a law prohibiting importation of slaves even 
from other states of the Union. 

" Behold the movement of a great people, who would 
secure their safety ! Behold the model you should 
imitate ! But we are told ' Your efforts are vain. You 
cannot justly reproach us. Our plantations need 
hands, and if we cannot obtain negroes, what shall we 
do V We are far from wishing to offend a cla„ss equally 
deserving respect and esteem, including many we are 



THE CUBANS. * 59 

happy to call friends. We ai*e habitually indulgent, 
and in no instance more so than in that before us. 
The notions and examples to which they have been 
accustomed justify in a great measure the part they 
act, and an immediate benefit and remote danger au- 
thorize in others a course of conduct which we wish 
may never be generally and permanently adopted. 
We would not rudely censure the motives of the plant- 
ers. Our mission requires us only to remark, that it 
is necessary to adopt some other plan, since the change 
in politics is inconsistent with and hostile to the much 
longer continuance of the illicit trafiic in slaves. We 
all know that England has, both with selfish and hu- 
mane motives, made and is still making great efforts 
against it by means of treaties. She is no longer the 
only power thus engaged, since France is also taking 
her share in the enterprise. The United States will 
soon appear in the field to vindicate down-trodden hu- 
manity. They will adopt strong measures, and perse- 
veringly pursue the pirate negro-dealer. Will he then 
escape the vigilance of enemies so active and powerful 1 
And even should some be able to do so, how enor- 
mously expensive must their piracy be ! It is demon- 
strable that the number of imported negroes being 
then small, and their introduction subject to uncom- 
mon risks, their cost would be so enhanced as to de- 
stroy the motive for preferring slave labor. A proper 
regard to our true interests will lead us to consider 
henceforth other means of supplying our wants, since 
our present mode will ultimately paralyze our resources 
and be attended with baneful consequences. The 
equal distribution of the two sexes in the country, and 
an improved treatment of them, would alone be suffi- 
cient, not merely to prevent a diminution of their num- 
ber, but greatly to increase it. But the existing dis- 
proportion of the sexes forbids our indulging in so 
pleasing a hope. We shall, however, do much to effect 
our purposes by discontinuing certain practices, and 



60 



CUBA AND 



adopting a system more consonant to the good princi- 
ples that should be our guide. 

" Would it not be advisable to try some experi- 
ments that we may be able to compare the results of 
cultivating cane by slaves, with such other method as 
we may find it expedient to adopt ? 

" If the planters could realize the impwtance of 
these propositions to their welfare, we should see them 
striving to promote the introduction of white and the 
exclusion of colored hands. By forming associations, 
raising funds, and in various ways exerting themselves 
vigorously in a cause so eminently patriotic, they 
would at once overcome the obstacles to the introduc- 
tion of white foreigners, and induce their immigration 
by the guarantees of good laws and the assured tran- 
quillity of the country. 

" We may be told that these are imaginary plans, 
and never to be realized. We answer that they are 
essays, not difficult or expensive, if undertaken, as 
we suggest, by a whole community. If we are not 
disposed to make the voluntary trial now, the day is 
at hand when we shall be obliged to attempt it, or 
abandon the cultivation of sugar. The prudent mari- 
ner on a boisterous ocean prepares betimes for the 
tempest, and defies it. He who recklessly abandons 
himself to the fury of the elements is likely to perish 
in the rage of the storm. 

" ' How imprudent,' some may exclaim, ^ how impru- 
dent,' to propose a subject which should be forever 
buried in ' lasting oblivion !' Behold the general accu- 
sation raised against him who dares boldly avow new 
opinions respecting these matters. Unfortunately there 
is among us an opinion which insists that ' silence' is 
the true policy. All feel the evils which surround us, 
are acquainted with the dangers, and wish to avoid 
them. Let a remedy be suggested and a thousand 
confused voices be simultaneously raised ; and a sig- 
nificant and imploring ' Hush !' — ' hush !' is heard on 



THE CUBANS. ^ 61 

every side. Such infatuation resembles his who con- 
ceals the disease which is hurrying him to speedy 
death, rather than hear its unpleasant history and 
mode of cure, from his only hope, the physician's sav- 
ing science. Which betrays censurable apathy, he 
who obstinately rushes headlong to the brink of a 
mighty precipice, or he who gives the timely warning to 
beware '? Who would not thus save a whole community 
perhaps from frightful destruction 1 If we knew most 
positively that the disease were beyond all hopes of 
cure, the knowledge of the fact would not stay the 
march of death, while it might serve but as a terrify- 
ing annunciation of his approach. If, however, the 
sick man is endowed with a strong constitution, that 
with timely prescription promises a probable return 
of health, it would be unpardonable to act the part of 
a passive spectator. We heed not that the selfish con- 
demn, that the self-admiring wise censure, or the parri- 
cidal accuse us. Reflections of a higher nature guide 
us, and in the spirit of our responsible calling as a 
public writer, we will never cease to cry aloud, ' Let 
us save our country — let us save our country !' " 

Nothing would more forcibly illustrate the rapid 
encroachment of despotism in the island than the 
publication, now, of a document like the above, or 
any thing discreditable, or disparaging to the slave- 
dealers. Whoever should dare make the experiment, 
would most certainly do it at the risk of his life. 
Further comment on the progress of tyranny is unne- 
cessary. 

Not to lose sight of the order of events, it must be 
borne in mind that immediately after the overthrow of 
the constitution, and precisely at the time the persecu- 
tion for revolutionary opinions commenced under the 
order of 1825, the country was in its most flourishing 
and healthy period. The fruits of the several acts for 
promoting the country's welfare and the development 
of its resources, which owed their origin to corpora- 



62 CUBA AND 

tious, before they had lost their vitality, had been gath- 
ered. Moreover, the judicious and liberal policy above 
described was continued by the intendant, who could 
then act with great independence. As chief of the 
financial department, the Count de Villanueva regu- 
lated the mode of keeping accounts, corrected abuses, 
introduced greater simplicity in the collection of taxes, 
and established several facilities beneficial to the 
merchants. By means of his great influence at Ma- 
drid, he was enabled to supersede the captain-gen- 
eral in the presidency of the consulado, and directing 
the labors of that body, he made them subserve the 
development and improvement of the country. Avail- 
ing himself of the general wealth, and of the increas- 
ing agriculture of the island, he daringly taxed its pro- 
ducts ; and it is generally believed that it was during 
his administration, taxes of various kinds were im- 
posed for the first time without the consent of those to 
be afiected by them. He represented " de facto" the 
people of Cuba ; was the chief fiscal agent ; the friend 
and adviser of the captain-general ; the favorite of 
Ferdinand's government. A skillful and mighty au- 
thority like his could, at such a period, draw abundant 
resources from the country for the metropolis, and pro- 
mote at the same time the interests of the former by 
reforming abuses. To both these objects were his ex- 
ertions successfully directed. To his discriminating 
judgment it was very evident that a vast territory, 
capable of great agricultural production, could not 
maintain its position, much less make progress, should 
its commerce be again limited to the mother-country. 
He was aware that the probable results of such limit- 
ation would be the total annihila,tion of the surplus 
revenue, of which they were so desirous at court ; the 
immediate paralysis of agriculture, the fountain of the 
island's wealth ; and a very extensive contraband 
trade. 

Villa,nueva had the waters of the Husille brought 



THE CUBANS. 63 

into the city by a well-devised though costly plan ; the 
roads near Havana macadamized, and a mud-machine 
erected to clear the anchorage and preserve the 
wharves. He established the more modern and ra- 
tional system of selling at auction to the lowest bidder 
the performance of various services, particularly for 
the government or the public. He enlarged the Span- 
ish navy from the navy-yard of Havana ; the regular 
intercourse between the two countries by mail packets 
was his suggestion, and the Guines railroad is a crown- 
ing, ever-memorable, and enduring monument of his 
enterprise and genius. Amidst these improvements, 
beneficial to Spain and the island, the count was ena- 
bled to make frequent and heavy remittances to the 
general treasury in Spain, which was so relieved by 
them that the demands were gradually augmented 
without any regard to the means of meeting them, and 
the inevitable consequence was, the sacrifice of the 
necessities of the island to the urgency of their pay- 
ment. Thus it happened that the Bank of St. Ferdi- 
nand, the establishment of which was one of the acts 
which do honor to Villanueva, had no opportunity of 
doing any service to the public, as its capital was spe- 
cially sent for from Madrid. In brief. Count Villa- 
nueva's administration can in no way be better appre- 
ciated than by bearing in mind that whatever liberal 
and enlightened views he carried into practical efiect, 
he had nothing similar to guide him or excite his emu- 
lation, in all the Spanish territory. His power in 
Cuba was great, his influence in Madrid had no equal, 
and his credit abroad was such that his promise and 
acceptance was a source of revenue at court. The 
authority of the captain-general himself being eclipsed 
by his, it is certainly no matter of surprise that public 
bodies and individujfcls should have sunk into insignifi- 
cance. 

It was in such a state of political weakness and gen- 
eral prosperity, that the estatuto real, which was the 



64 CUBA AND 

first liberal act of Christina's regency, found Cuba. 
Under it the inhabitants of the island observed, as 
they always had done, the laws promulgated in the 
mother-country. A number of members were added 
to the municipalities, equal to the number of heredit- 
ary members, and the former w^ere by express proviso 
to be individuals who were highest on the tax list. 
Thus formed, these corporations elected the deputies 
who represented the interests of the island at the 
Spanish congress. This slight political change, which 
enabled the corporations of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, 
and Puerto Principe, to name three deputies in the 
" estamentos" without other free institutions, was cer- 
tainly not calculated to alarm the royal authority, how- 
ever jealous it might be supposed. Three votes, more 
or less, could not of course cause any uneasiness ; but 
it is ever the consequence of free institutions, in just 
proportion to their worth, to diminish the importance 
of individuals. Here, then, was one of the causes of 
that strenuous opposition so successfully exerted to 
deprive the island of deputies to Madrid. Such a re- 
fusal, where there is an immense amount of productive 
capital to be benefited or injured, or destroyed by the 
enactments of government, and where the colony is not 
even allowed delegates to represent its interests at 
court, has no parallel in any civilized country professing 
to approve of liberal institutions. The island was at 
that time governed by General Tacon, whose short- 
sighted, narrow views, and jealous and weak mind, were 
joined to an uncommon stubbornness of character. 
Never satiated wdth power, it was through his influ- 
ence that the wealthy portion of the community was 
divested of the privileges conferred on them by the 
estatuto. He even deprived the old municipalities of 
Havana of the faculty of naming the under-commissa- 
ries of police. In his own immodest report of his 
reign, as it was justly termed, he enumerated the very 
extensive and costly buildings and public works he had 



THE CUBANS. ^ 65 

constructed, and from tlie singular manner in -which 
he accounts for procuring the ordinary. means, we must 
suppose he had the power of working miracles. To 
sustain his absolute government by trampling on every 
institution, was the necessary consequence of his first 
violent and unjustifiable act. It was consequential 
upon his own and his followers' efibrts. For any pow- 
er, any institution, not dependent on the palace of the 
captain-general, might be the means of denouncing 
abuses, of exposing the real deformity of his and their 
pretended patriotism ; and the numberless parasites 
whose interest ever was to blind the royal eyes, magni- 
fied the virtues of their hero, while they were rapidly 
accumulating fortunes at his side. In order to obtain 
credit in the management of the police, he displayed a 
despotic and even brutal activity in the mode of exact- 
ing from the under officers, distributed in the several 
wards of the city, under personal responsibility, the 
apprehension and summary prosecution of criminals. 
They soon found that there would be no complaint, 
provided they acted vigorously and brought up prison- 
ers. So far from presuming their innocence, or re- 
quiring proof of their crimes, those who were once 
arrested were put to the negative and difficult task of 
proving their innocence. The more unwarrantable the 
acts of his subalterns the more acceptable to him, since 
they, in his opinion, exhibited the energy of his author- 
ity. They trembled in his presence, and left it to 
persecute, to invent accusations, to imprison, and 
spread terror and desolation among the families of the 
land ! It is but just to add, that the banditti and 
thieves and professed gamblers were terrified by his 
sweeping scythe, and became much more modest than 
they had been during the brief government of the weak 
and infirm General Ricafort, the predecessor of Tacon. 
The timid and short-sighted merchant who perceived 
this reform, did not comprehend or appreciate the ille- 
gality of the system, nor its pernicious efiects on the 



63 CUBA AND 

future destinies of the country, and was the first to 
justify the man who dared interpose himself between 
the Spanish monarchs and their subjects, to silence 
every complaint of the latter, and to say to the former, 
" You shall never hear the petitions of your American 
vassals contrary to my pleasure." The political ser- 
vitude at that moment implanted in the country was 
new, and of course excited discontent, which was not 
unfrequently vented in the random conversation of 
young men. 

The consequence of all this was, a regular system 
of espionage. The prisoners were distributed in the 
castles, because the jails were insufficient to contain 
them. In the dungeons were lodged nearly six hun- 
dred persons, the cause of whose detention nobody 
knew ; a fact authentically proved by a casual circum- 
stance. In the streets, in the highways and fortresses, 
under a scorching sun, and during the unhealthy sea- 
son, the poor Carlist prisoners, having surrendered 
themselves, trusting to the faith of liberals, were suf- 
fered to sicken and sink miserably into a premature 
grave. Let it not be supposed, however, that his' po- 
litical persecution was confined to the enemies of the 
liberal institutions then existing in Madrid. The con- 
trary may be adduced from the inconsiderate protec- 
tion extended by him to the famous friar Cirilo Al- 
meda, of whose machinations he appeared to approve, 
and from the fact that events favorable to the queen 
were at a certain period not permitted to appear in the 
distorted press of Havana. His creed was soon ascer- 
tained. He considered those whom he thought likely 
to tear the veil from his tyranny, the veritable trai- 
tors, the enemies of the throne, and the advocates of 
independence in Cuba. He destro3^ed all freedom of 
discussion in the municipal body, usurped its powers, 
and frightened away such members as he thought would 
not bend sufficiently to his will. He constructed an 
enormously high, massive, level road through the 



THE CUBANS. * 67 

widest avenue of the city, which has since been re- 
moved, at the expense of the same suffering commu- 
nity who had to pay for its erection, and had to suffer 
its unhealthy effects while it remained. General Ta- 
con moreover established a privileged market for sell- 
ing meat and fish, to the detriment of the public and 
the public revenue, and for the profit of himself and 
his nearest friends. Those who doubt this statement, 
may find a clue to the facts in the " Expression de 
Agravios, ante el Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, por 
el Ayuntamiento de la Habana sobre cargos en resi- 
dencia al General Tacon," printed in New York by 
Desueur and Company, in 1839. Among other things 
it will the^e be seen how a man living at the table and 
board of Tacon, was subsequently found to be inter- 
ested in the contract for the meat and fish market, 
without its being absolutely binding on him to perform 
the condition of paying in his amount of stock in order 
to be entitled to his share of the profits, which he did 
nevertheless receive. 

It will likewise be found that the party to that con- 
tract w^as illegally preferred to the more regular bid- 
ders. It may further be ascertained from that work 
that when the contractors obtained the grant and com- 
menced exacting unauthorized fees, to the great injury 
of the public, a suit was instituted to investigate and 
reform the abuse at the tribunal of one of the alcaldes, 
and that the record was claimed and taken possession 
of by Tacon, who still lies under the charge of having 
caused it to disappear, as it is stated in his successor 
General Espeleta's official answer, that it is not to be 
found in the archives of the captain-generalship. 

Notwithstanding General Tacon' s efforts at the first 
election under the estatuto, the voice of his Excellency 
Don Juan Montalvo y Castillo was raised in Madrid 
at the Cortes, and the misconduct of the former par- 
tially exposed. As it continued, Messrs. Armas and 
Saco were named for the second congress during his 



68 CUBA AND 

government, both very enlightened and able men, well 
acquainted with the circumstances, and friendly to the 
welfare of the island, and as much opposed to the 
ultra-liberal or revolutionary ideas, as desirous of re- 
moving from the Spanish peninsular government the 
shame and discredit of such lawless proceedings on the 
part of the chief metropolitan authority. To discover 
imagined conspiracies, to commence suits blindly ap- 
proved by his assessor, to expatriate, to vex, to im- 
prison the citizens, these were Tacon's noble exploits. 
His artful reports found credit at court. He was 
therefore continued in his government, and the Spanish 
Cortes in 1836, by a majority exceeding thirteen votes, 
shut their doors, which had always been open to Amer- 
ican representatives, against the deputies of the island, 
then elected and at Madrid. They were obliged to 
return without being allowed the privilege of uttering 
their grievances. This was the single but serious act 
of usurpation which robbed the descendants of the isl- 
and's conquerors of all interference in its administra- 
tion and tributary system. Some time after the oath 
to the constitution had been taken at Madrid in 1837, 
the Spanish General Lorenzo, commanding in St. Jago, 
encouraged by the encomiums and rewards conferred in 
former times and in similar instances, on such author- 
ities as first followed the impulse given at the court of 
a political change, thought it his duty to conform to 
the plan most approved by all parties, royalist or libe- 
ral, viz. : to repeat the cry raised at the seat of gov- 
ernment. 

He therefore proclaimed the constitution. The 
wily old general who had so successfully deprived the 
country of all representative or delegate system, would 
not of course very quietly allow his fabric to be 
leveled to the ground. He made an ostentatious dis- 
play of his authority, and though well satisfied of the 
pacific views of the eastern part of the island, insisted 
upon fitting out an expensive expedition, which cost 



THE CUBANS. , 69 

the inhabitants more than $500,000, and would have 
it proceed, notwithstanding that the commissioners 
sent by Lorenzo made a formal promise that the east- 
ern part of the island should preserve their system 
until the queen decided, or would obey at once Tacon's 
order to annul the constitution, provided an amnesty 
were granted for the single act of proclaiming the 
same, their sole offence. General Tacon again made 
use of his favorite weapon against the islanders, 
applying it to General Lorenzo and the intendant of 
Havana, by perfidious suggestions calculated to impair 
their well-proven loyalty to their sovereign. Such im- 
probable stories, the ill-disguised animosity of his pas- 
sionate language, the cognizance by some impartial 
Peninsular tribunals of some of his gTOssly-imagined 
plans of conspiracy, all had an influence to force the 
Spanish court to acknowledge, without, for reasons of 
policy, publicly avowing it, the irregular and disorderly 
course of Tacon's administration, and he was removed 
from office. The removal of General Tacon is said to 
have been effected by a compromise between the minis- 
try and Olivar, acting as agent for Villanueva, in 
which the rights of the Cubans were sacrificed to 
the latter's personal ambition. It was then agreed 
that no political assembly, or any rights whatever, 
should be allowed the Cubans, but that Tacon should 
be removed. This discreditable compromise was the 
undoubted origin of the immediate discontent and sub- 
sequent rapid adoption of the principle of annexation 
through the island. Nothing was more efficient in 
drawing the mask from his face than the unskillfulness 
of Joaquin Valdez, his standing conspiracy-witness and 
confidential agent, who in framing one of his plana got 
into a strange dilemma by compromitting the intend- 
ant of Cadiz, and other respectable old Spaniards, sup- 
posed to be concerned in the plot. 

It should be mentioned, to the honor of the Spanish 
name, that at the subsequent sittings of the Cortes, and 



70 CUBA AND 

before the removal of Tacon, as if the injuries which had 
been inflicted on Cuba called for immediate redress, it 
was generally admitted as a matter of course, what has 
since been artfully withdrawn from the sight of the con- 
gress, that the political condition of that distant colony 
should be attended to and ameliorated without delay. A 
generous and high-minded Spaniard, Don Antonio Bena- 
vide, equally loyal to his country and desirous of the 
welfare of its inhabitants, clearly and ably insisted 
upon the adoption of any system in lieu of the omnipo- 
tence of the captain-general. But the zeal and high 
sense of justice entertained by the congress could give 
no relief, where the agents of the local government 
were active, and the oppressed country had no dele- 
gates to maintain her rights. The only result was a 
royal order authorizing Tacon to call a junta, which 
he took care should be formed to his liking generally, 
composed of authorities named by government, in its 
pay, with three or four private individuals among the 
general's pliant tools. This junta was to propose 
special laws for the government of the island. The 
consequence was exactly what might have been ex- 
pected. The chief soon perceived that, however yield- 
ing the members might be, thej^ must draw up some 
rules ostensibly to restrain his untamed will, or excite 
the ridicule of even the Spanish court. After calling 
together and dispersing them instantly, under a show 
of separating them into committees, he rendered the 
whole attempt inefficient, and feigning fear of danger 
from the plots of the white population, caused every 
feeling of justice to Cuba to be forgotten in Spain. 
The only proposition which seem^ to have transpired 
from the sitting of that strange, transitor}^, and expen- 
sive junta, was to make the island a vice-royalty and 
Tacon vice-king. Ludicrous as it may appear, it is 
no less true. 

Notwithstanding it was under fi-ee institutions that 
Spain granted the establishment of the mixed Anglo- 



THE CUBANS. 71 

« 

Spanish tribunal at Havana, for the cognizance of 
prizes taken from the African trade, it was when the 
public bodies of the island were without sufficient 
energy to raise their spontaneous protest on political 
questions, that the Castilian name was humbled by the 
floating fortress which the English anchored in the 
port of Havana, as a rallying signal for the blacks, 
openly and malignantly avowed, and sufficiently evi- 
dent from the fact that it was manned by black men 
in British uniforms ! These soldiers, distributed in 
the heart of the city, the greater number liberated 
from slave-ships by the tribunal, who both during and 
subsequently to their apprenticeship were left in the 
country in direct communication with their bond- 
brethren, were the first instruments of spreading dis- 
content among the slave population. Very far from 
independent, and from representing the interest of the 
wealthy planters, must have been the public bodies of 
the island, who thus patiently saw the germs of vio- 
lent insurrection sown broad-cast over the land, with- 
out most earnestly assailing the Spanish ministry with 
their complaints. It was not however until about the 
year 1835, that the disproportion of the races became 
alarming. In 1837, General Tacon received an offi- 
cial communication from Madrid, inclosing a copy of 
a note from the Spanish minister at Washington, con- 
taining a vivid picture of the dangers to Cuba from 
the abolitionary eiforts making in the United States 
and generally all over the world. He who had heed- 
lessly given new life and development to the policy 
which Vives had only partially unfolded, and which 
consisted in separating the old Spaniards from the 
natives, was now made to feel that the co-operation of 
the country's bourgeoisie, in all their united effort, 
was requisite to oppose the encroachments of the abo- 
litionists. 

The exposition of the minister at Washington, though 
abounding with contradictory opinions, was, in the main. 



72 CUBA AND 

exact. It predicted immediate danger. No public 
bodies existing which could be considered as emanating 
even indirectly from the people, rich or poor, he having 
discredited and crushed all such institutions, what could 
he do 7 He contrived to call a general meeting of the 
planters in the city of Matanzas, whose very judicious 
report provided for domestic and rural government, ma- 
terial defence, and funds to carry their plans into effect. 
The colonization of the island by white inhabitants, 
which had been unlawfully terminated, was demanded 
by this meeting of planters, who also insisted upon the 
establishment of a rural militia. In consequence of 
these requisitions, their resolutions on the first were 
not carried into execution. The immigration of w^hites 
has been materially obstructed by an influential party, 
who consider it hostile to the introduction of laborers 
more consonant to their taste and interest. General 
Valdez was latterly named captain-general, an honest 
and generous soldier, whose memory is still dear to the 
liberal party in Spain, wearing many honorable marks 
of worth, gray in the service of his country, but 
his capacity undoubtedly impaired by age, joined to a 
general ignorance of the colonies and of political affairs, 
common to all the military as a class. A person ob- 
serving the progress of English pretensions respecting 
Cuba, would certainly conclude that Lord Palmerston 
had himself chosen such a man, who, though beyond the 
reach of bribery, and incapable of willful wrong to his 
country, was, from his weakness, a suitable and man- 
ageable instrument. Let it, however, be said in his 
praise, that he had occasion to show that when the cap- 
tain-general chooses to put an end to the slave trade, it 
is in his power to do so. 

Soon after his arrival, a series of by-laws made for 
the government of the slaves was published, wherein, 
instead of providing for the real circumstances of the 
occasion, the dominical rights of the master were sud- 
denly attacked, yet not so much, perhaps, by their pos- 



THE CUBANS. * 73 

itive provisos, as by the appearance of interference at 
a period when the restlessness and uneasiness of the 
blacks required measures of an entirely contrary nature. 
The management of a slave country is always a difficult 
matter. To avoid the commission of great errors, in 
the condition of Cuba, would have been scarcely less 
than miraculous. The actual feelings of the blacks 
could not, with certainty, be ascertained by individuals 
who had either recently arrived from Spain, or never 
attended on the estates but for a few moments, or dur- 
ing excursions of pleasure. Thus it happened, that 
many judicious planters, judging from the small and 
gradual changes in the domestic life of the blacks, fore- 
saw the coming storm for years, while the government 
agent could not comprehend, and resolutely refuted, 
such opinions as they thought unnecessarily alarming, 
an^ decidedly against their interest in the African trade. 

eir. Turnbull, the English consul, who, from his 
Opean reputation, would never have been allowed 
to occupy the post of consul at Cuba, had the Cuban 
proprietors had an organ of complaint, other than the 
government agents, concerted incendiary plots, and 
boldly followed them, notwithstanding the timely inter- 
ference of Garcia, one of the governors of the city of 
Matanzasr\^ 

Several incidents might be named, evident precursors 
of an insurrection, which, for many years before the 
late repeated attempts, demanded a change in the sys- 
tem of the whole island ; a change which would have 
taken place under a government having the means and 
disposition to ascertain the true state of things. 

For the better understanding of the subject, it must 
be remembered that the ancient balance of influence 
established by the Spanish law between the military 
class and the judicial, or lettered part of the community, 
had been altogether lost ; the former having been in- 
trusted with every branch of the administration, even 
to the making of by-laws for the black slave population, 
4 



74 



CUBA AND 



"which was submitted to the control of government 
agents, perhaps under the direction of their alhes, the 
slave -dealers. At the same time an ominous policy 
commenced ; the colored inhabitants were particularly- 
favored ; had numerous meetings, called cabildos, and 
enjoyed even greater privileges than the whites — being 
formed into military bodies for public defence, whereas 
the whites could not form a militia for their own safety, 
even in moments of pressing danger, and in those places 
where the disproportion of the races was most frightful. 

Laws were enacted, purporting to alleviate the con- 
dition of the slaves ; an apparent protection, calculated 
more to harass the owner than to realize the improve- 
ment of the former, without any attempt to instruct 
either. This was accompanied with the continuation 
of the slave trade, and the barbarous political oppres- 
sion of the native Creoles, whose every thought was 
looked upon with jealous suspicion. It seemed evident 
that the policy consisted in placing the lives and prop- 
erty of the inhabitants of Cuba in such imminent dan- 
ger as to choke any feeling of resentment respecting the 
political changes which the Spanish government adopted 
for the exclusive advantage of the metropolitan part of 
the community. Thus was the dissatisfaction of the 
blacks fostered. How else can be explained the cause 
of the progress made in the island in that respect, and 
not in those slave-holding countries which surround it, 
and which, having a more frightful disproportion in 
numbers between the races, and greater freedom in the 
press and institutions, are withal enjoying comparative 
tranquillity 1 

The bonds between master and slave were gradually 
severed ; the affections destroyed ; the mutual relations 
of the races, for which the Spaniards had been always 
distinguished, were broken ; and while every one depre- 
cated the perilous situation of the Cubans, the latter 
continued unarmed ; the slave trade augmented the 
causes of fear ; and no moral reform was adopted to 



THE CUBANS. " 75 

soften the harsh features and discordant views of the 
subjected or of the dominant race. It seemed as if oc- 
casional ruptures, which should awaken the natives to 
a sense of danger, were the most acceptable offering to 
the administration. Such did come to pass from time 
to time ; what was the nature of these disturbances can, 
perhaps, be best understood by the following extract 
from the work of the Countess of Merlin, entitled '^ The 
Slaves in the Spanish Colonies ;" who, though not a 
solid writer, has a style which savors of her sex, and is 
quite entertaining. She wrote some where about 1840 : 
" The suavity of manner of the Cuban toward his 
slave inspires the latter with a respectful feeling, which 
is akin to worship : there is no limit to this affection ; 
he would murder his master's enemy publicly in the 
streets at mid-day, and would perish for his sake under 
torture, without giving a wink. To the slave, his mas- 
ter is his country and his family. The slave takes the 
family name of his lord ; receives his children at their 
birth ; shares with them the food which was prepared 
by nature in female breasts ; serves them in humble 
adoration from earliest infancy. If the master is sick, 
the slave watches over him day and night ; closes his 
eyes in death ; and when this takes place, throws him- 
self sorrowfully on the ground, cries wofully, and with 
his nails rends his own flesh in despair. But if a vin- 
dictive feeling is awakened in his bosom, he recovers 
his natural ferocity ; he is equally ardent in his hatred 
and in his love ; but very seldom does it happen that 
his master is the object of his revengeful fury. When 
an insurrection is not excited by foreigners (which, by 
the by, is not often the case), the cause of it may be 
traced to violent enmity toward the overseer. Here is 
a fact which proves the moral influence of the masters 
over the minds of these savages. A few months pre- 
vious to my arrival, the blacks of the sugar estates of 
my cousin, Don Rafael, became insurrected. The 
slaves lately imported from Africa were mostly of the 



y 



76 CUBA AND 

Luccoomee tribe, and therefore excellent workmen, but 
of a violent, unwieldlj temper, and always ready to 
hang themselves at the slightest opposition in their 
way. 

" It was just after the bell had struck five, and the 
dawn of morning was scarcely visible. Don Rafael had 
gone over to another of his estates, within half an hour 
before, leaving behind him, and still in tranquil slum- 
bers, his four children and his wife, who was in a state 
of pregnancy. Of a sudden the latter awakes, terrified 
by hideous cries, and the sound of hurried steps. She 
jumps affrighted from her bed, and observes that all the 
negroes of the estate are making their way to the house. 
She is instantly surrounded by her children, weeping 
and crying at her side. Being attended solely by slaves, 
she thought herself inevitably lost ; but scarcely had she 
time to canvass these ideas in her distracted mind, when 
one of her negro girls came in, saying, ' Child, your 
bounty need have no fears ; we have fastened all the 
doors, and Michael is gone for master.' Her compan- 
ions placed themselves on all sides of their female own- 
er, while the rebels advanced, tossing from hand to 
hand among themselves a bloody corse, with cries as 
awful as the hissing of the serpent in the desert. The 
negro girls exclaimed, ' That's the overseer's body !' 
The rebels were already at the door, when Pepilla (this 
is the name of the lady), saw the carriage of her hus- 
band coming at full speed. That sweet soul, who, until 
that moment, had valiantly awaited death, was now 
overpowered at the sight of her husband coming un- 
armed toward the infuriated mob, and she fainted. In 
the mean time, Rafael descends from the vehicle, places 
himself in front of them, and with only one severe look, 
and a single sign of the hand, designates the purging 
house for them to go to. The slaves suddenly become 
silent, abandon the dead body of their overseer, and, 
with downcast faces, still holding their field-swords in 
their hands, they turn round and enter where they had 



THE CUBANS. , 77 

been ordered. Well might it be said, that they beheld 
in the man who stood before them the exterminating 
angel." 

It should be observed, with regard to this moral in- 
fluence, which can alwaj^s be more or less preserved, 
that it is the source of safety for every slave country as 
long as slavery is sustained, and the guarantee of order 
when it is abolished. Painful is it, therefore, to see it 
fast declining in the island, since the military menials 
of government in the interior take pleasure in, and ex- 
tort scandalous profit by, debasing and robbing the de- 
graded, uninstructed white population. 

Khere a free white man can be carried publicly 
gh the country with his arms tied behind him (the 
American citizens, Christopher Boone and others, were 
thus ignominiously exposed), merely on suspicion, or 
through the malignant avarice of an illiterate, ignorant 
soldier, acting as sole authority in the land, the white 
race cannot command that respect, and exercise the in- 
fluence, Avhich saves the southern states from continued 
insurrectionsTl 

'' Although^he movement," the countess continues, 
"had for a moment subsided, Rafael, who was not 
aware of its cause, and feared the results, selected the 
opportunity to hurry his family away from the danger. 
The quitrin^ or vehicle of the country, could not hold 
more than tAVO persons, and it would have been impru- 
dent to wait till more conveyances were in readiness. 
Pepilla and the children were placed in it in the best 
possible manner ; and they were on the point of start- 
ing, when a man, covered with wounds, with a haggard, 
deathlike look, approached the wheels of the quitrin, as 
if he meant to climb by them. In his pale face the 
marks of despair and the symptoms of death could be 
traced, and fea.r and bitter anguish were the feelings 
which agitated his soul in the last moments of his life. 
He was the white accountant, who had been nearly 
murdered by the blacks, and having escaped from their 



7S 



CUBA AND 



ferocious hold, was making the last efforts to save a 
mere breath of life. His cries, his prayers, were cal- 
culated to make the heart faint. Rafael found himself 
in the cruel alternative of being deaf to the request of 
a dying man, or throwing his bloody and expiring corse 
over his children : his pity conquered ; the accountant 
was placed in the carriage as well as might be, and it 
moved away from the spot. 

" While this was passing on the estate of Rafael, the 
Marquis of Cardenas, Pepilla's brother, whose planta- 
tions were two leagues off, who had been apprised 
through a slave of the danger with which his sister was 
threatened, hastened to her aid. On reaching the spot, 
he noticed a number of the rebels, who, impelled by a 
remnant of rage, or the fear of punishment, were di- 
recting their course to the Sabanas,* searching for 
safety among runaway slaves. The Marquis of Carde- 
nas, whose sense of the danger of his sister had induced 
him to fly to her help, had brought with him, in the 
hurry of the moment, no one to guard his person except 
a single slave. Scarcely had the fugitive band per- 
ceived a white man, when they went toward him. The 
marquis stopped his course and prepared to meet them ; 
it was a useless temerity in him against such odds. 
Turning his master's horse by the bridle, his own slave 
addressed him thus : ' My master, let your bounty get 
away from here ; let me come to an understanding with 
them.' And he then whipped his master's horse, which 
went off at a gallop. 

" The valiant ' Jose,' for his name is as worthy of 
being remembered as that of a hero, went on toward 
the savage mob, so as to gain time for his master to 
fly, and fell a victim to his devotedness, after receiving 
thirty-six sword-blows. This rising, which had not 
been premeditated, had no other consequences. It had 
originated in a severe chastisement inflicted by the over- 

* The Sabanas are large open and barren plains, tbe iast abodes 
resorted to by runaw.iy slaves. 



THE CUBANS. 79 

seer, which had prompted the rebels to march toward 
the owner's dwelling, to expound their complaint. 
They begged Rafael's pardon, which was granted, with 
the exception of two or three, who were delivered over 
to the tribunals. A remarkable truth of the love of 
the slaves toward their lord, is the fact of their stopping 
in the outset the engine which was at the time grind- 
ing, and preventing the explosion which would other- 
wise have taken place. Not only do the inhabitants of , 
Cuba forward the emancipation of their slaves by pro- ^' 
curing for them the means of gaining money, but they 
often make the grant without any retribution. A ser- 
vice of importance, a mark of attachment, the act of 
nursing the master's child, assiduous care during the 
last illness, or the priority of services of an old mem- 
ber of the family, are all acts rewarded by the gift of 
liberty. Sometimes the slave considers this benefit as 
a punishment, and receives it weeping." 

These are very charming ideas. It is a pity that the 
countess should, by entering continually in the field of - 
romance, get so far from the regions of truth. This 
remark, however, applies, in the paragraphs quoted, 
only to the assertion that the slaves in any case object 
to being made free, or that such gifts are so common. 
There are facts both pleasing to the philanthropist and 
worthy of credit. The following, from the touching 
pen of the lady of Merlin, afibrd a happy illustration 
of them : 

" Though the slave enjoys the right of holding prop- 
erty, at his death it passes to the master ; but if he 
leaves children, the proprietor never deprives them of 
the inheritance. It sometimes happens that the free 
negro makes his will in favor of his former master. 
Here is an example. During the scourge of the chol- 
era, an old woman was attending the sick negroes of 
my brother. She had continued in his service, although 
she had freed herself many years before. Being taken 
mth the disease, she called my brother and said to him : 



80 



CUBA AND 



' My master, I am going to die. These eighteen ounces 
of gold are for j^our bounty ; this piece of money for 
my comrades ; and this good old man, my husband, also, 
if your bounty will let him have an ounce to help him 
on through life, it is well.' The poor old woman did 
not die, but had a most miraculous escape. 

" I will refer to another anecdote, showing the lofty 
and delicate feeling in the heart of a slave. The Count 
of Gibacoa owned a slave, who, being desirous of ran- 
soming himself, asked his master ^ how much he asked 
for him V The answer was, ' Nothing ; thou art free 
henceforth.' The negro was silent, looked at his mas- 
ter, wept, and went off. A few hours afterward he 
returned, bringing with him a fine bozal, or newly-im- 
ported African, whom he had purchased with the sum 
intended for his freedom ; and he said to the count : 
' My master, your bounty had one slave before ; it has 
now two.' 

" The blacks become identified with the affairs of 
their masters, and take part in their quarrels. The 
captain-general, Tacon, who, during the time of his 
government in Cuba, performed some few beneficent 
acts in this colony, but from his harsh and inflexible 
temper excited much ill-feeling, and took pleasure in 
humbling the nobility by his despotism, had persecuted 
the Marquis of Casa Calvo, who died while exiled. 
Some time afterward, and for the purpose of a magnifi- 
cent banquet, which Tacon was to give the latter, he 
solicited the more renowned cooks of the city ; but the 
best of them was a slave to the Marchioness of Arcos, • 
a daughter of the unfortunate Casa Calvo. Dazzled 
by the very height of his station, the general imagined 
that nothing would oppose his will ; and he asked the 
lady to allow him the services of the cook ; but she, as 
might be expected, refused. Mortified with the failure, 
the general offered the negro not only his freedom, but 
an additional and abundant gift, should he choose to 
enter his service ; but the negro answered : ' Tell the 



THE CUBANS. 81 

governor that I prefer slavery and poverty with my 
master to wealth and liberty with him.' " 

These acts, however, of devoted fidelity on the part of 
the slaves are descriptive of a period in the history of 
the slavery of Cuba long since passed. Though the ro- 
mantic and very youthful heart of the countess would 
prolong the dream, ever}^ one must be awakened to the 
sad reality which now covers this land. 

Not very far apart, in time, from the insurrection of 
Montalvo, another took place, some where near Agu- 
acate. In 1842, there was one in Martiaro, for the 
second time. On the last occasion, the slaves were 
made bold by the impunity which, through the deranged 
sj^stem of justice, a,nd the influence of their owner, had 
been obtained for them previously. In the same year, 
the captain of the district of Lagunillas found an in- 
cendiary proclamation, which had fallen from the pock- 
et of a foreign mulatto, who was employed as mason. 
A monk appeared on an estate near Limonar,* under 
pretence of requesting alms for the Virgin, whose image 
he carried with him, and went on prophesying to the 
blacks, that on St. John's day they would become free. 
In July of the same year, the slaves of an estate near 
Bemba committed several acts of insubordination, and 
murdered a neighbor. An Italian hair-dresser was im- 
prisoned in 1841 for receiving proclamations of an in- 
cendiary nature. The negroes of Aldama, under the 
very walls of Havana, refused to w^ork, and claimed the 
right of freedom. In January, 1843, a colored man, 
suspected by his companions of having revealed the par- 
ticulars of the murder of an officer of government, by 
the name of Becerra, was assassinated by one of his 
own class, who, being afterward taken, committed sui- 
cide in gaol. In March, 1843, there happened at 
Bemba an insurrection of five hundred negroes, belong- 
ing to the railroad company and others. Very soon 
after, there was another movement on a large estate ; 

* The Triangulo. 
4* 



82 CUBA AND 

and before that year closed, it occurred a second time. 
Soon after, the insurgents made a formal rallj^, doing 
many bloody deeds, and murdering numbers of the 
whites of different ages and sexes. 

The above brief retrospective view of a few only of 
the principal signs which were indicative of disquietude 
among the slave population is very important at the 
present day, when the irregularity of the proceedings 
in the discovery of the plot has been the origin of an 
absolute disbelief of all charges against every one of 
the slave population. The information received offi- 
cially at Havana from the Spanish minister at Wash- 
ington, and through the court of Madrid, as far back 
as 1834, in which the dangers which threatened the 
island were fully shown, had been altogether slighted. 
So also were these events, though marked with blood, 
and showing unequivocal symptoms of a coming storm. 
It gathered not in a single day, but came gradually on ; 
and the humbled landholder was doomed to see the 
clouds of destruction hanging over his propert}^, amid 
the general apathy of the officers of government, who 
alone were intrusted with the care of that in which they 
felt no interest. 

A rich planter, having obtained, subsequently to the 
last bloody insurrection of November, 1843, by means 
of a negro woman, and by hiding himself during the 
night in the room where she slept with her husband, 
the particulars of a plan of devastation and bloodshed 
so extended as to make him shudder with horror, the 
local government seemed at length to awake from a 
sleep fraught with such imminent danger. One of the 
immediate results was a meeting of the planters called 
in the city of Matanzas for the third of December. 
The meeting was held ; a committee named to propose, 
on the seventeenth, a report, which report being unfa- 
vorable to the slave trade, the planters were not al- 
lowed to meet again, and the military administration 
went through those difficult circumstances, guided by 



THE CUBANS. 83 

its own incompetent intelligence, or by the suggestions 
of the ignorant. 

How did they act ? What system did they adopt to 
quell the general commotion among the colored popu- 
lation, which was so visible to every eye 1 The answer 
to these questions will be found in the ungrateful task 
which it is here necessary to perform. 

Under the impression derived from some testimony 
obtained by the military tribunals, established for the 
occasion, and composed of officers of inferior grade, it 
was supposed that the conspiracy framed by the blacks 
comprehended every individual of that unfortunate 
class. No one was excepted ; every one must be 
guilty ; and those who would or could reveal nothing, 
were marked as the most criminal. Acting upon this 
ground, a general investigation, or what was called 
" expurgo^^^ was ordered throughout the whole land, 
and intrusted to the most ignorant officers, whose sys- 
tem of inquiry was reduced to questions implying the 
answers required, and accompanied by the most vio- 
lent chastisement, often inflicted in such a manner as 
sooner or later to produce death. Suggestions were 
made of the utility of employing lawyers of eminent 
standing, whose ingenuity and capacity would have 
advanced the proceedings efficiently ; but nothing of 
the kind met a hearing. The following are a few of 
the atrocious acts which resulted from conferring judi- 
cial powers upon military officers of an inferior class. 

Under date of March 6th, 1844, the captain-general 
addressed a letter to General Salas, who presided over 
the military tribunal stationed in the interior, in an- 
swer to the dispatches of the latter, consulting him as 
to the necessity of using violent means in the prosecu- 
tion of those free colored persons under indictment, 
who should refuse to discover their associates, and set- 
ting forth the good effects which those means had pro- 
duced among the slaves. In this letter his excellency 
authorized these same means to be employed with the 



84 CUBA AND 

free colored population, and manifested his approbation 
of their chastisement in the country where they should 
be taken, and of the attendance of the officer, in order 
to certif}'' the testimony ! 

These officers, thus raised by a power above the 
laws, and above the dominical rights of the owners of 
slaves, with very few exceptions, exercised their au- 
thority in a manner the most sordid, brutal, and san- 
guinar}^ Under the universal alarm raised, and ex- 
tending to every hut, whoever was bold enough to 
insinuate a doubt respecting facts revealed under the 
most atrocious tortures, was deemed an abolitionist; 
although his interests and previous conduct presented 
a much safer guarantee of his opinions than the trust 
which should be placed in uneducated and hungry offi- 
cers of the army. It was quite common for the latter 
to demand and obtain money from the accused, in or- 
der to save their lives, or their bodies from bar-^arous 
lashing. 

One of these prosecuting attorneys, judges, and exe- 
cutioners, at one and the same time, namely, Don 
Ramon Gonzales, ordered his victims to be taken to 
a room which had been whitewashed, and the walls of 
which were besmeared with blood and small pieces of 
flesh, from the wretches who had preceded them in this 
cruel treatment. There stood a bloody ladder, where 
the accused were tied, with their heads downward, and 
whether free or slave, if they would not avow what the 
fiscal officer insinuated, were whipped to death by two 
stout mulattoes selected for this purpose. They were 
scourged with leather straps, having at the end a small 
destructive button, made of fine wire. At the spot 
called the farm of Soto, were butchered in this man- 
ner M. Ruiz, C. Tolon, George Blakely, and other 
freemen ; and their deaths were made to appear, by 
certificates from physicians, as having been caused by 
diarrhoea. This new minister of the law had been 
formerly prosecuted for theft, extortion, and even 



I 



THE CUBANS. * 85 

deeper crimes, committed while he commanded the 
criminal's depot. 

Don Mariano F brought on himself the execra- 
tion and odium of the whole city of Matanzas for his 
barbarous treatment of Andrew Dodge, a colored man, 
born free, who was generally beloved and esteemed, 
and was the owner of a considerable property. He 
was tied to the ladder and flogged on three different, 
occasions, but never avowed what he was accused of ; 
and finally he was executed, in defiance even of those 
sanguinary laws of old, which instituted the ordeal of 
torture in ages called barbarous. He also caused a free 
negro, Pedro Nunez, to be tied hand-and-foot and hung 
to the ceiling of the house, keeping him in this painful 
position through the night, his body having been pre- 
viously lacerated by the whip. Again, by threatening 
to inflict punishment, he obtained from the mulatto, 
Thomas Vargas, an affidavit against a man of the same 
class, called Fonten. He used to visit Vargas at his 
dungeon every day after sentence had been passed on 
him, to assure him sportingly that he would not fail to 
receive four bullets through his body. The prophecy 
was of course fulfilled. 

Don Juan Costa, another of the acting officers, had 
likewise his share in this work of accusation; and 
there were, in the process of his making, ninety-six 
certificates of an equal number of deaths of the indicted 
during the investigation. Of these, forty-two were 
freemen and fifty-four slaves. They all had died 
under the lash ; and that you may judge of the in- 
tensity of their sufferings, I will record what appears 
from the process, viz. : " Lorenzo Sanchez, imprisoned 
on the first of April, died on the fourth ; Joseph Ce- 
vallero, imprisoned on the fourth, died on the sixth ; 
John Austin Molino, imprisoned on the ninth, died on 
the twelfth : and so on through an infinite number. 

Don Jose del Peso punished a negro one hundred 
and ten years old, who died at the Matanzas jail. 



86 CUBA AND 

Don Francisco Illas, tlie enlightened and humane fiscal 
officer, who appears among those of his class as if to 
redeem the Spanish name from the dark stain brought 
upon it by his associate, was called to certify to the 
death of this old man ; but he drew back horror-struck 
from the spot when he beheld a man so worn by age, 
having his body cut into pieces by the pitiless lash. 
The unfortunate victim had complained of the fiscal 
Peso, accusing him of stealing from him forty-five dol- 
lars. Del Peso, after inflicting severe punishment, 
found sport in hanging the accused victims on a tree, 
and then cutting the ropes to see them fall to the 
ground in bunches. He had been a journeyman tailor 
at Havana. 

Don Ferdinand Percher presented his process, hav- 
ing seventy-two certificates of deaths of prisoners dur- 
ing the prosecution ; twenty-nine freemen and forty- 
three slaves. " I have one hundred prisoners in 
souse," said he once, before a number of respectable 
citizens, " and if one escapes I am willing to have him 
nailed to my forehead." 

Don Leon Dulzaides, in July, 1844, had a free ne- 
gro placed in the jail in what is called " campaign- 
stocks," which is a most distressing position of the 
body, the arms being arranged so as to hold the legs ; 
and thus placed, ordered him to be whipped unmerci- 
fully, until he should confess. Another of the fiscals, 
who was acting in his official character in the next 
room, was called by the cries of the victim, and ob- 
tained for him a suspension of punishment. Dulzaides 
demanded the punishment of death for twenty-seven 
prisoners, but the council sentenced only two. Dur- 
ing the reading of the sentence, he used to ask money 
of such as were saved from death. Seventy prisoners 

of Don Jyacinth died during the prosecution, of 

whom thirty-five were freemen. This fiscal was sus- 
pended from office. 

Don Miguel Ballo de la Rore, being on the estate 



THE CUBANS. , 87 

of Oviedo, extorted from the negroes affidavits accus- 
ing their master, who being absent, was apprised 
through his administrator or econome, that he was a 
lost man, but that the fiscal would save him, provided 
he paid two hundred ounces of gold. The administra- 
tor wrote several letters on the subject, which were 
handed to General Salas, president of the tribune, who 
wrote to the fiscal, ordering him not to continue the 
prosecution on that estate. 

Don Manuel Siburu, fiscal of the prosecution against 
the English and American machinists, had demanded 
in his accusation the sentence of death upon an Eng- 
lishman named Elkins. The members of the military 
tribunals, however, being intimidated by the conse- 
quences that might follow, and at the same time well 
aware that the testimony had been extorted by the lash, 
consulted respecting the case with General O'Donnell. 
The latter answered, that they should proceed from 
what they found in the process, and look well to what 
they did ; which, as there was no mention of the tor- 
ture in the proceedings, meant that they should crown 
by their sentence the system of barbarous cruelty com- 
menced by the fiscals. The consultation was repeated, 
and a similar answer obtained. At the same time, Mr. 
Crawford, the English consul at Havana, officially in- 
formed the captain-general that he was aware that the 
British Majesty's subjects were being indicted and 
judged at Matanzas in a manner different from that 
adopted toward Spanish subjects ; that as the testimo- 
ny had been obtained by forcible means, whatever had 
been done was null ; that there existed a treaty be- 
tween the two nations, wherein it was stipulated that 
no Englishman should be judged in the Spanish domin- 
ions by special tribunals or committees, but by the 
regular order of the Spanish laws for Spaniards. The 
consul was persevering in his demand, and the captain- 
general, embarrassed also by the consultations afore- 
said, was obliged to give up ; and he consequently or- 



05 CUBA AND 

dered that the prosecution against foreigners should be 
placed in the hands of Don Francisco Illas, to be made 
anew. This able officer soon perceived that nothing 
was to be met with in what had been done but false- 
hood, infamy, and caluniii}^, disconnected^ thrown to- 
gether by the stupid Siburu. Within two months af- 
terward the prisoners were declared innocent, and lib- 
erated. It was in the presence of this same Siburu, 
that another of his prisoners, the aged and respectable 
mulatto, Ceballos, well known and esteemed by the 
merchants of Havana, suddenly expired on being shown 
the place of torture. 

Don Pedro Linares had three old Indians whipped 
in Cardenas, two of whom died, who lived in that neigh- 
borhood, and had resided on the island since the ac- 
qmsition of Florida by the United States, whence 
they had come, from their attachment to the Spanish 
nation. Don Pedro Acevedo, fiscal of the proceedings 
against the negroes on the coffee estate of Domech, who 
had been accused of possessing poison (which, by the 
by, was never found) for the purpose of killing their 
master, so contrived it as to throw the guilt on a young 
white man, a native of the Canary Islands, aged be- 
tween nineteen and twenty-one, who was executed, de- 
claring his innocence to the last moment of his life. 
Oil being exhorted by the priest to pardon his enemies, 
he complied with the request, excepting the fiscal, Ace- 
vedo, whom he could not pardon. 

Don Pedro Llanes, another of the fiscals, filled up the 
measure of his crimes, which cried so loudly for punish- 
ment, that he was at length accused of numberless rob- 
beries, extortions of money, and all kinds of wickedness, 
and at last was stopped in his dark career, a,nd impris- 
oned in the Havana jail. There, under the stingings of 
conscience, he placed in the hands of General O'Don- 
nell two hundred a,nd fifty ounces of gold, which had 
been the fruits of his rapacity ; and soon after com- 
mitted suicide by cutting his throat. Don Manuel 



THE CUBANS. * 89 

Mata, lieutenant-colonel of the Carlist ranks in 1834, 
another of the fiscals, was imprisoned at Havana for ex- 
cesses and robberies committed in his official character 
during these disgraceful proceedings. 

The remaining fiscals, Gala, Gherci, Flores Apodaca, 
Cruces, Custardoz, Marcotegui, Maso, Llorens, Sanchez, 
Rosquin, Baltanas, Alvarez Murillo, and Dominich, trav- 
ersed the country in every direction, and strictly obeyed 
the orders they had received ; some whipping or tor- 
turing free colored or slave individuals, and extorting 
false testimony and accusations, and others seizing 
horses, cattle, furniture, and whatever was owned by 
the free colored persons, all which they sold and con- 
verted into cash. It is hardly necessary to say, that 
the fiscals took from their victims every cent which 
they possessed. 

It is but justice to add, that the fiscals named Men- 
doza, Arango, and Illas are honorable exceptions to this 
host of miscreants. Signer Illas, above all, has called 
forth the approbation of all the feeling part of the com- 
munity, and of the friends of justice and humanity, for 
his able, judicious, disinterested, and impartial conduct 
and deportment in the cases of the French coffee-plan- 
ters and the English and American machinists, as well 
as of all who fell under his control. In the cases un- 
der the direction of the fiscal Ballo, this officer did not 
demand that sentence of death should be pronounced on 
any of his prisoners ; the tribunal nevertheless sen- 
tenced two. The fiscal Lara demanded death for only 
one, and the tribunal sentenced four. The sergeant 
intrusted with the custody of the prisoners in the mili- 
tary jail at Matanzas is said to have collected twenty 
thousand dollars in cash for prison-fees and other ar- 
bitrary charges exacted from the prisoners, 
j In the city of Matanzas, the general persecution of 
the colored race was converted by the fiscals into means 
of gratifying their lewd passions upon the distracted 
daughters, wives, and sisters of their male victims. So 



90 CUBA AND 

far did they carry their barefaced impudence, that a ball 
was given by several of the fiscals, and attended by the 
consulting lawyer of the military tribunal, where none 
but women of color appeared. At a late hour of the 
night, the doors were closed ; and all the inmates being 
in a state of disgraceful nudity, one can imagine what 
scenes of revelry and debauch followed. Acts of such 
low and stupid infamy serve to show how the several 
channels of civilization are interwoven, and how easy it 
is for man, when once authorized to trample on any of 
the salutary restraints of society, to mock and despise 
whatever comes in the way of his most sensual appetites. 

And now, in order justly to estimate the trust placed in 
the hands of these agents of military justice, the nature 
of their duties should be stated. They had separately 
the jurisdiction of a tribunal, with power to imprison 
and call before them whomsoever they would interro- 
gate. The testimony which they obtained was received 
privately, no one being present except the fiscal and 
the witness. The fiscal would write down and sign the 
declaration, the blacks and the majority of witnesses 
knowing neither how to read nor write. Not even the 
notary, who is required to be present at the affidavits 
before the ordinary tribunals, appeared on these occa- 
sions to check the arbitrary, malicious, or blind impres- 
sions of the fiscal. Officers of the army were named 
to act as counsel for the individuals indicted, whether 
colored or white, free or bondsmen. These counselors, 
incapable through lack of talent or learning, were not 
allowed to read the proceedings regarding the persons 
whom they were to defend. All the instruction they 
had must be derived from a hasty and general abstract 
of facts made by the same fiscal, whose last duty was 
to demand the sentence which, in his opinion, should be 
imposed on the criminal. 

Too much blame should not be attributed to the 
chief who, commanding the island at this delicate pe- 
riod, could not be approached by the wisdom and in- 



THE CUBANS. •* 91 

telligence of the land. The invariable and jeaious pol- 
icy Avhich, for many years, has directed the administra- 
tion of Cuba, drew away from the absolute military 
authority whatever was enlightened and spirited. Men 
of vulgar habits and little education were the natural 
upholders of a barbarous system ; and it was not easy 
to find officers of superior worth to act under a cruel 
impulse, and to execute sanguinary orders ; so that this 
strange course was unavoidably placed in the most in- 
capable or polluted hands. It is, therefore, manifest- 
ly unjust to charge upon the chief authority of the 
island the faults which were due to the political jeal- 
ousy, or the institutions, if such a name can be ap- 
plied to the despotism established. But on the other 
hand, it would be an embarrassing question for those 
who have professedly enhanced acts of the same high 
functionary, to analyze and point out minutely the 
measures by which the island has been saved, and 
wherein the high capacity of the chief magistrate has 
been made manifest. 

With regard to the truth of the conspiracy, and 
whatever ground it originally had, it has been so much 
embroiled and connected with incoherent, false, and im- 
probable testimony, adduced by the fear of punishment, 
that a general opinion is fast gaining ground at the 
present day, that it never existed, and that the few re- 
ports and conversations of a rebellious nature, men- 
tioned with some plausibility in the course of the inves- 
tigations, are the constant and latent workings of the 
slaves, which, in all ages, have accompanied the insti- 
tution of slavery. This would be a difficult matter to 
decide. The events which preceded the general and 
scourging inquisition lately gone through with, together 
with the simultaneous and visible impudence of the free 
colored race, are certain indications of a disturbed state 
of mind in at least some sections of the country. On 
the other hand, the indictments followed up by different 
fiscals, and the use of the torture without obtaining 



92 CUBA AND 

satisfactory evidence to dispel all manner of doubt as 
to the existence of a plot, speak against its credibility. 
It can also be alleged that the very ignorance of the 
prosecutors, and the irregularity of their mode of pro- 
cedure, were calculated to hinder the discovery of a 
plot, without deciding that it had positively no founda- 
tion. It is more likely that the conspiracy was in its 
infancy ; and that when the avenging storm which swept 
over the land was heard from afar, it increased the 
number of the discontented, who, through despair, pre- 
pared for some last acts of devastation and blood. 
There is one painful reflection, which fixes itself upon 
the considerate observer of events. While foreigners, 
after long delay, obtained a hearing of their cases, and 
after being paraded through the country, tied hand-and- 
foot on horseback, and kept in a filthy dungeon, were de- 
clared innocent, the white Creoles, who had been im- 
prisoned with equal injustice, remained still incarcer- 
ated, and their cases undecided, because they had no 
consul to claim for them the rights of civilized man ! 



THE CUBANS. «93 



CHAPTER III. 

Geographical Situation of Cuba. — Its Beauty and Fertility. — Differ- 
ent Names of the Island in illustration. — Notice of " Notes on Cuba, 
by a Physician." — Trip to Guinea. — Beautiful Farms. — Hedges of 
Aloes. — Plantain Fields. — Sugar and Coffee Estates. — Tropical 
Trees. — Singular way of distributing Milk. — Life in Guines. — 
The Valley of the Yumui'i. — The Bay of Matanzas. — The Ceiba 
and Jaguey-marcho. — Subterraneous River. — Robbers. — Storm in 
the Rainy Season. — Errors in the " Notes on Cuba." — The Au- 
thor's ludicrous Mistakes. — False Notions of Slavery. — Oppressive 
Acts of the Officers of the Lavir. — Bad Influence of the Slave-Trade 
Party. 

In the two preceding chapters have been given a short 
historical and political sketch of Cuba, in which it 
will be seen that the island is at present in a most 
degraded and oppressed condition, and apparently 
without prospect of any favorable change on the part 
of its rulers. Before going into a detail of the wrongs 
which Cuba now endures, and the grievances of which 
her inhabitants complain, and before considering her 
present position with Spain, and her prospects for the 
future, it is advisable to give some idea of the island 
itself, and the character — social and domestic — of its 
inhabitants. 

Cuba is about 780 miles in length by 52 in mean 
breadth, and has a superficial area of 43,500 square 
miles, being nearly equal in extent to all the other isl- 
ands taken together. It is traversed throughout its 
whole extent by chains of mountains, whose highest 
peaks, Potullo and Cobre, attain an elevation of more 
than 8500 feet ; and the plains beneath are copiously 
watered, and rendered fit for producing in the highest 
perfection all the objects of tropical culture. The cli- 
mate, particularly in the western part, although trop- 



94 CUBA AND 

ical, is marked by an unequal distribution of heat at 
different seasons, indicating a transition to the tem- 
perate zone. The mean temperature is 70% but in 
the interior and eastern part 73°. The hottest months 
do not average more than 84°-85°, and the coldest 
present a mean temperature of about T0°. Ice some- 
times forms at night after a long continuance of the 
northers, but snow never falls. Hurricanes are of 
much less frequent occurrence than in the other isl- 
ands. The situation of Cuba, commanding the en- 
trance of the Gulf of Mexico and the communication 
between North and South America, gives it a high 
commercial and political importance. Indeed, such 
designations as, " The Queen of the Antilles," " The 
Key of the Gulf," " The Sentinel of the Mississippi," 
" The Beautiful Antille," " The Gem of the Ameri- 
can Seas," indiscriminately bestowed upon this en- 
chanting island, are sufficiently significant of its advan- 
tageous commercial position, and its remarkable natu- 
ral beauty and fertility. 

A work published some four or five years since, en- 
titled " Notes on Cuba, by a Physician," contains such 
correct descriptions of the country, and such faithful 
delineations of the landscape and the several phenom- 
ena of nature, while in other respects it abounds with 
mistakes, that it is thought best to make some use of 
its contents in this work, both to afford very interest- 
ing descriptions of the island, and to point out the 
errors of the author in more important points. 

The following is from the account of his trip to 
Guines, on the railroad : 

" We were thus carried by well-stocked farms, sur- 
rounded by hedges of aloes, their dagger-pointed and 
stiff long leaves closely interlaced, bidding defiance to 
either ingress or egress, while from the centre of these 
clustered lances, erect flowering stems, with twined 
branchlets and cup-like blossoms, raised their candela- 
bra forms a score of feet high, in their primness look- 



THE CUBANS. ^5 

ing more like the work of art than nature. Then 
came the square-trimmed lime hedge, with its small 
clusters of white flowers yielding their perfume to the 
air, equally impenetrable to man or beast ; and next 
long lines of uncemented stone fences, built of the jag- 
ged honey-comb coral rock that abounds throughout the 
country. These often inclosed whole acres of luscious 
fragrant pines, each sustained by a short footstalk 
aboye the circle of thorny leaves compassing the plants 
that were spread low over the ground ; some were still 
small and blue with the half-withered flowerets that 
blossom all over the fruit ; others were ripe, large, and 
of a golden hue, while a few of the hardier kind, but 
less esteemed, were of a reddish green tint. 

"Now we passed by fields of plantains growing 
thickly together, bearing above their frail trunks heavy 
bunches of green fruit, with their terminating cones of 
unfructified flowers, their long, tender fan-like leaves, 
torn in shreds by the winds and drooping around, rag- 
ged and bruised, giving them the appearance of a crowd 
of slatterns in dishabille. Surrounding us on every 
side, many other valued treasures of our hot-houses 
springing from the rich soil, arrested the attention by 
their foliage, or flowers not wearing moreover the 
sickly look of pampered care, but fresh and vigorous, 
tended by nature's skillful hand. 

" But the trees of the tropics alone are an inex- 
haustible source of admiration and wonder to the 
stranger. We were soon beyond the immediate neigh- 
borhood of the city (Havana), its gardens, its farms 
and its hamlets ; and their places were supplied by 
extensive sugar and cofiee estates, with their large 
potreros and woodlands. Here the royal palm, queen 
of the forest, met the eye on every side. Sometimes 
isolated and irregularly scattered over fields of sugar- 
ca,ne with their tall straight trunks and their tufted 
crowns of long, branch-like fringed leaves, waving and 
trembling in every breeze^ and glistening in the rays 



96 CUBA AND 

of the sun, they stood like so many guardian spirits of 
the land keeping watch over the rich verdure, stretch- 
ing far in the distance beneath them. Now in long 
avenues of turned Corinthian columns, their long 
leaves, reaching across and intermingling, forming one 
continuous high-sprung arch, and their trunks glossed 
with white lichen as with paint, they led the eye to the 
country mansion of the planter with its cool verandahs 
and its back-ground of neatly-thatched negro-houses, 
while in the adjoining potreros large clumps of them 
sheltered with their shade the cattle grazing peacefully 
at their feet." 

And again when in Guines : " Slowly promenading 
under the porches of the houses, I could not refrain 
from occasionally peeping into the parlors and cham- 
bers as I passed their large iron-grated windows. But 
the inmates were all up, and although now and then a 
fair senora might be seen in dishabille, the whole 
household was generally engaged in the duties of the 
day, for the Creole is always an early riser. Several 
were engaged in sweeping the pavements ; others were 
clustered around the milkman's cow, which had been 
brought to their doors, and were waiting their turn to 
have their pitchers filled from the slow stream ; while 
a calf tied just without tasting distance looked pite- 
ously on, and at times showed signs of impatience, as 
he saw his morning meal borne off. When all had 
been supplied he was muzzled, and his halter tied to 
the extremity of the cow's tail. One rush to the bag 
was tried but the cruel netting frustrated all attempts 
to taste the bland fluid, and the poor animal quietly 
followed in the rear as the man drove his cow to the 
houses of his other customers. 

" At other doors the malojero was counting out his 
small bundles of green fodder, each containing a dozen 
stalks of Indian corn, with the leaves and tassels at- 
tached, the common daily food of the horse. On their 
pack-horses were bundles of small-sized sugar-cane, 



THE CUBANS. • 97 

neatly trimmed and cut into short pieces, and selected 
small on account of their superior richness, offering to 
the Creole a grateful refreshment during the heat of the 
noon. Others carried large matted panniers slung over 
their clumsy straw saddles, filled with fine ripe oranges, 
the favorite and healthy morning repast of the native 
and the stranger, the well and the invalid. As the 
day progressed, mounted monteros were seen galloping 
through the streets, just arrived from their farms ; each 
with his loose shirt worn over his pantaloons, its tail 
fluttering in the breeze, while his long sword, lashed to 
his waist by a handkerchief, dangled at his back. Then 
there was the heavy cart laden with sugar, for the rail- 
road depot, drawn by eight strong oxen, the front pair 
some twenty feet in advance of the rest, its freight of 
boxes bound down firmly with cords, and covered with 
raw hides. By its side the driver stalked, dressed in 
a loose shirt and trowsers, which once may have been 
white, but now closely resembled the soil in their hue, 
and a high-peaked straw hat, with a wide rim, on his 
head. He held in his hand a long pole, armed with a 
goad, with which he urged forward his slow-moving 
team, often striking the sharp nail at its extremity re- 
peatedly into the flank of an ox, until the poor animal, 
in his endeavors to escape, seemed to drag the whole 
load by his sole strength. Other carts were returning 
to their distant sugar estates, laden with planks cut 
into proper sizes and fastened in packages, each con- 
taining all the sides to make a sugar box ; thus put up 
by our ingenious northern friends for the Cuba market. 
" The arriero with his pack-horses, eight or a dozen 
in number, was also urging them on by his voice and 
the occasional crack of his whip, while they staggered 
under their heavy loads of charcoal, kegs of molasses, 
or aguardiente (rum), and the halter of each being tied 
to the extremity of the tail of the horse before, moved 
in single files, carefully picking their way. Suddenly 
one of the hindmost would stop to survey the path, 
5 



98 CUBA AND 

when there would he such a general stretching of tails 
that bid fair to leave some of them in the state of Tarn 
O'Shanter's mare after her hard-won race. The whip 
of the arriero would, however, soon remove the diffi- 
culty, and the long line would again move forward." 

The pictures of the country in the vicinity of Guines ; 
the negro pranks on Twelfth-day, and their dances ; 
the cock-pit and cock-fighting ; the madruga baths and 
scenery ; and above all, the detailed accounts of the 
Carlota cojBfee estate, are accurate, and leave true and 
vivid impressions. 

" There are several beautiful drives near Matanzas," 
says the author ; " but those which no stranger should 
neglect are that to the Cumbre, the ridge of the high 
hill rising north of the city, and that to the valley of 
the Yumuri, which it separates from the sea. Accom- 
panied by a friend at whose house I was staying, I left 
the city in a volante before sunrise, and following a 
road of the roughest kind, which, passing behind the 
handsome barracks and the airy, large hospital situated 
on the slope of the hill, wound up its steep acclivity, I 
gained the narrow ridge of the Cumbre. Here, as I 
walked along the level road, I knew not on which side 
to fix my eye, so beautiful were the landscapes that 
surrounded me. Seaward, the widely- extended ocean, 
with numerous vessels on its great highway, the Gulf 
Stream, and more than thirty miles of the shores were 
included in a single view. Then there was the long, 
broad bay of Matanzas, dwindled in size, and looking 
like a majestic river with its fleet of vessels riding at 
anchor, and the city a,t its head covering the level plain 
and creeping up the hill beyond it. On the other side 
of the ridge, far down below our very feet, lay the 
lovely valley of the Yumuri, with its grounds now 
broken into sharp peaks, now gently undulating ; its 
cane-fields, with their pea-green verdure, and the dark 
green foliage of the tall palms scattered irregularly over 
them ; its orange groves and luxuriant plantations with 



THE CUBANS. 99 

broad waving leaA^es ; its cocoas, its almonds, and its 
coffee, with here and there a gigantic ceiba spreading 
out its massive arms high in air. As the mist, which 
in different parts hung over the scene, rose in fleecy 
masses, or gradually dissolved in the increasing heat of 
day, and farm after farm, and cottage after cottage, be- 
caihe lit by the bright sun's rays, throwing into bold 
relief the illuminated portions, while the rest still lay 
in the deep shade of the Cumbre, a landscape was pre- 
sented that I had never seen rivaled even amid the 
picturesque scenery of Switzerland. 

" The valley is very small, which, indeed, adds to 
its beauty, and is so completely hemmed in on every 
side by high precipices, that it seems entirely cut off 
from the rest of the world ; while the oriental and quiet 
air it presents is in strong contrast with the busy city 
just by it, and the long extent of mountainous region 
stretching far in the distance beyond. At the foot of 
the height on which I stood, a small cottage was 
perched, on the very summit of a small conical hill, 
and with all the appurtenances of a farm-yard, lay like 
a picture below me ; the objects were much diminished 
in size, but the crowing of the cock and the bleating of 
the kids came distinctly on the ear, and heightened the 
interest of the scene. The whole formed a lovely, se- 
cluded nook, and one could not refrain from envy of the 
happy lot of the montero whose home it was. But the 
heart was pained on recurring to the past history of the 
vale ; and while fancy sketched the scenes of murder 
and carnage which this place had witnessed, of its once 
peaceful people, it seemed well that the name of the 
neighboring city should be so significant of the event. 
It was here that, in 1511, numbers of the aborigines 
were cruelly massacred by the Spaniards, and the rem- 
nant, driven by bloodhounds to the surrounding heights, 
were forced in despair to throw themselves over their 
brinks into the river below, crying out ' Yo moir,^ I 
die ; whence the name of the vale and river. 



100 CUBA AND 

" On the ridge were several private residences, into 
one of which we were invited by its owner, who gave 
us that scarce article on a Cuba farm, a glass of fresh 
milk. In our descent to the city, several varied and 
beautiful views of it, and of the harbor and shipping, 
were presented ; and when we reached the base of the 
hill, a short but rapid drive brought us into the gap, 
through which the Yumuri escapes from the valley. 
High precipices rose on each side, their summits 
crowned with a luxuriant growth, while, from the over- 
hanging walls of the southern side, immense stalactites 
of various hues hung in irregular and grand festoons, 
amid which the entrance to a large cave was plainly 
visible. At its base the little river had expanded into 
a placid miniature lake, and beyond, through the cleft 
mountain, was seen the vale itself." 

The following is a very picturesque description of the 
ceiba and the jaguey : " Soon after entering a coffee 
estate, I passed by one of those giants of a tropical 
forest, a powerful ceiba, with its large, tall trunk fixed 
to the soil by huge braces projecting from it in different 
directions, and rising branchless and erect sixty feet, 
where it threw out immense horizontal arms of massive 
timber. The extremities of these only were subdivided 
into branches and twigs, which, covered by foliage, 
formed an umbrella-shaped canopy over the whole. 
But although themselves free from leaves, these stout 
arms supported on their broad surfaces a luxuriant gar- 
den of air-plants. There were the wild-pines in close 
set hedges, with gutter-shaped leaves and cup-like cav- 
ities filled with the condensed dews of night, serving as 
cisterns for the winged tribes during the long drought 
of winter. Other species in branches of strings hung 
pendent, or in fan-like shapes spread close to their fos- 
ter-parent ; while some, as the night-blooming ceres, 
with hairy coats, like long creeping insects, clung to 
the sides and under surfaces of the branches, or wound 
around the trunk itself. Nor was this garden devoid 



THE CUBANS. * 101 

of beauty. A partial glimpse could here and there be 
had of flowers of the brightest scarlet, of the richest 
brown, and of a delicate pink, exciting vain longings in 
the beholder to explore their aerial beds. Not far 
from this tree was another as large, inclosed in the 
deadly embraces of the jaguey-marcho ; it was a mor- 
tal struggle for mastery between the two giants ; but 
how powerful soever had been the ceiha^ it was evident 
from the size of the other, the multiplied folds of its 
arms around the trunk of its foster-parent, and its 
luxuriant branches and foliage already overtopping it, 
that the victory would soon belong to the parasite. 
Near was a jaguey-marcho standing alone ; the death 
of its victim had long been effected ; and it pompously 
raised its distorted trunk, and spread its irregular fo- 
liage, where once before its noble-looking parent had 
stood in all its beauty." 

The writer should have mentioned that the poets of 
Cuba have adopted the jaguey as the emblem of in- 
gratitude. Equally true is the following: " I had now 
gained the foot of the hill, and commenced ascending 
its winding path amid irregular masses of jagged coral 
rock, of which the whole range seemed composed, and 
which, from the sharp points it presents over its whole 
surface, has received the very significant name of ' dog's 
teeth.' It was every where perforated by round holes 
of various sizes, traversing in every direction, the whole 
looking like some thick paste that had been suddenly 
petrified while in a state of violent ebullition. Here 
the ingenious Liebig could see his theory verified in for- 
ests of heavy timber springing from beds of barren 
rock, their roots penetrating into the holes and fis- 
sures, fixing the trunk firmly to the earth ; while on 
the soilless bed rank air-plants, covered with their in- 
terlaced roots the petreous surface, or in clumps sus- 
pended in the air, clung to every tree. 

" The foliage above was so thick that the rays of the 
sun penetrated only here and there through the almost 



102 CUBA AND 

twiligtit-sliade that shed a softness on all below, where 
the dews of night hung in pearly drops on every leaf. 
Nothing could exceed the air of solitude reigning 
throughout this primeval forest. Scarcely a bird was 
seen amid its foliage, or a sound heard, save the faint 
murmur of the east wind through the thick canopy over 
head, and the boring of the worm penetrating the fallen 
timber. Even the solitary whistle of the small day- 
owl, and the occasional and distant clacking of the ar- 
riero, tended only to increase the sense of loneliness. 
It is in forests like this that the hutia loves to dwell, 
the wild-cat to hide her young, and the wild-dog to 
build his lair. Amid its deep recesses the runaway 
negro also seeks a home in some secret cave, spending 
his days in sleep and his nights in prowling about the 
borders of the neighboring estates." 

" The Creole," the author remarks in another part 
of his work, alluding to the countrymen " or monteros, 
is a finished orator, graceful in his actions and in his 
expressions. While talking, his whole frame is in mo- 
tion ; and one ignorant of the Spanish, could almost 
guess the drift of the conversation by his pantomime. 
I once listened to a most graphic description of William 
TelPs shooting the apple off his son's head by a mago- 
ral (overseer) of a sugar estate. In one of my excur- 
sions I dined at the same table with him, and had been 
relating some anecdotes of courage, when he in his turn 
told that story. He was seated when he commenced, 
but warming with the subject, he arose from his chair, 
and, as the story proceeded, presented in succession the 
anxious crowd of spectators, the patient, unconscious 
child, the firm father, and the stern tyrant, in tableaux 
vivants that I had never seen excelled. At the mo- 
ment when he had shot the arrow, and placed his hand 
on the other, ready to send it to the heart of the tyrant 
if the first pierced his son, the intense agony of the 
father, more intense because half-subdued and mingled 
with his deadly resolve, was so well depicted, that I 



THE CUBANS. * 103 

gazed with unfeigned astonishment at the actor, when 
the cries of the crowd, joj^ful at his success, burst from 
them. Then came the daring response to the t3Tant, 
that the second shaft was for his own heart, at which 
point his story closed, and I was revolving in my mind 
how a stranger to liberal institutions could depict the 
indomitable spirit of liberty dwelling in the bosom of 
the Swiss, when he said that all this happened to an 
Indian and his king in Mexico." 

The description of the subterranecis river in the 
village of San Antonio is worthy of perusal : "On 
reaching the spot, I found the deep ravine, leading 
into the cave, dry ; but the river which in the winter 
season disappears close by the town, would be heard 
rushing in its underground course near the opening. 
The ceiba, nearly a hundred feet high, rested the base 
of its immense trunk on the very edge of the rock 
overhanging the entrance ; the huge braces common to 
this tree projecting a score of feet from it on the land, 
and firmly fixing it to the soil. It stood like some 
giant guard over the yawning cavern below, which 
seemed well suited to be the fabled residence of the 
terrible Ceme, worshiped by the Cuban Indian. The 
moon-beams lit up every object without, making the 
dark cavern still more dreary ; numerous tree-frogs 
were piping their bird-like notes from the bushes cov- 
ering the sides of the ravine, and bats were flitting 
down into it, while ever and anon a large wild owl 
swept across the chasm, hastily beating the bushes on 
its margin, and emitting his grinding cries. The 
whole spot was extremely picturesque ; but one could 
not help fancying the stream, when swollen by the 
rains, thundering down into the wide mouth of this 
cave, and carrying with it whatever it bore throughout 
its subterranean course, depositing bones of animals, 
perhaps of men, of birds, reptiles, and land shells ; and 
at its submarine outlet, ejecting some amid those of 
the finny tribes of the ocean and its shells ; and when 



104 CUBA AND 

these shall have been upraised by the heaving earth- 
quake, puzzling the future geologist by the incongru- 
ous mingling. The river is again seen deep down, 
through an opening in the rock about half a mile 
from the cavern, and pieces of wood thrown into the 
stream have appeared on the coast several leagues dis- 
tant." 

As a specimen of the once distracted state of the 
country, the " Notes on Cuba" contain the following 
story : " The short road of six miles between this 
place (Havana) and Regla, now so safe, was during 
the days of piracy much infested by robbers, bands of 
whom then roamed with impunity trough all the sur- 
rounding country. A smart little Frenchman, who 
practiced the healing art in this city, was one night 
■waited on by one of them, with a command to accom- 
pany him to a wounded man. Fearing the result of 
a refusal, he mounted a horse that the robber had 
brought with him, and rode some distance from the 
city under his guidance, when the two were suddenly 
surrounded by a band of armed men. The doctor now 
repented of his journey ; nor were his fears lessened 
on their blindfolding him and leading him off on foot, 
although they assured him that no harm should come 
to him. After a long w^alk they reached a hut, where, 
the bandage having been removed from his eyes, he 
beheld a strongly-built man covered with wounds and 
exhausted by loss of blood. He was told to attend on 
him ; and having dressed his wounds, and informed 
them that they were not necessarily fatal, his eyes 
were again blindfolded, and he was given in charge of 
his guide ; a double handful of doubloons having been 
first offered to him as a fee, which he positively de- 
clined accepting. He was conducted safely home, and 
on the days appointed for his future visits the man 
and horse were found each night at his door. His 
patient got well, but the doctor would accept of no 
pecuniary recompense. In several of his rides after- 



THE CUBANS. ■« 105 

ward he was stopped on the road, but on being recog- 
nized was not molested ; and on some occasions he was 
even accompanied by some of his robber friends to his 
home, when other bands, who did not know his worth, 
were prowling about the place." 

The next extract is a picture of the daily storm dur- 
ing the rainy season : " For several consecutive days 
was the whole canopy of the heavens each noon hid by 
the heavy masses of clouds rapidly formed on the hori- 
zon, and over head presenting in their storm-like ap- 
pearance a strong contrast by the clear blue of the 
noon's unclouded sky. About two o'clock began the 
gathering to one broad focus : and the black thunder- 
cloud, condensing in its frigid bosom the ascending 
vapors, and blending with its own immense mass the 
smaller ones in its course, with gathered and still in- 
creasing power, rose majestically against the opposing 
verge ; its jagged edges apparently resting on the hills, 
and its pendent centre threatening destruction to all 
beneath. Then came the deep calm ; and each leaf 
was motionless, while the scuds above rushed madly 
together, and curled and intermingled as if in fierce 
contest. And now the sudden blast burst through the 
still air, and the stout tree groaned, and the tender 
plant lay prostrate benea.th its power. The long, pli- 
ant leaves of the tall palm, like streamers, fluttered in 
the rushing wind ; the frail plantain's broad, tender 
foliage was lashed into shreds ; the umbrageous alleys 
of mangoes waved their long lines of dense verdure, 
and all nature did homage to the storm-spirit ; all but 
the powerful ceiba, whose giant trunk bended not, and 
whose massive arms and close-set foliage defied its 
utmost wrath ; amid the turmoil it stood unmoved, a 
perfect picture of conscious strength. But the whole 
scene was soon hid by the torrents of rain that fell 
from the overcharged clouds. The atmosphere seemed 
converted into a mass of rushing waters ; and mingled 
with its rattling gusts, was the lengthened crash and 



106 CUBA AND 

reverberating roar of the more distant thunder and the 
sharp shot-like report of that close by; while vivid 
streams and broad flashes of lightning played rapidly 
through the aqueous shroud. In less than an hour 
the storm had passed by, but fresh masses of clouds 
rose from different quarters, and their circumscribed 
showers often fell heavily wdthin a few hundred yards, 
while near by not a drop descended." 

Thus was the rainy season ushered in : "In the 
afternoon the clouds separated into banks, which hung 
about the horizon ; and before evening the sun shone 
brightly through the transparent ether, and at length 
sunk into a gorgeously-colored and golden bed. A 
refreshing coolness pervaded the evening calm ; the 
tolling of the different estate bells sounding the oracion, 
came sweetly on the ear ; and when the shades of night 
set in, myriads of cocullos left their hiding places, and 
darting through the air, lit up the gloom with a thou- 
sand streams of lurid light, while the stars shone with 
a brilliancy not stirpassed in the frigid zone." 

And now, after enjoying these animated and vivid 
sketches, from the pencil of a correct, although at 
times a careless painter, would not one expect a simi- 
lar excellence in his moral pictures ? Would not one 
at least suppose his information to be judiciously ob- 
tained from reliable sources 1 It has always been sup- 
posed there was a near relation between a clear under- 
standing and an artistical talent. It would seem 
natural that whoever is able to describe the beauties 
of the material world, must feel their harmony, and by 
consequence^ possess superior intellectual faculties. 
How happens it, then, that the author of the " Notes 
on Cuba" should so incessantly err, when economical 
disquisitions take the place of his graphic represent- 
ations of the external world? When the country's 
moral condition is the topic, he at once shows himself 
to be badly informed, and his judgment so partially 
and disparagingly exercised, that he constantly contra- 



THE CUBANS. « 107 

diets himself. His hasty views upon the gravest sub- 
jects indicate a weak intellect, easily led astray, even 
in opposition to the nobler and better feelings of his 
nature. Not to impute to the author, however, any 
unworthy motive, as the cause of the very serious and. 
unaccountable mistakes in his work; for the ingenious 
acknowledgment of his inconsistencies at the close of 
the volume, excludes so severe an inference. It is 
both more charitable and reasonable to find their true 
cause in that inconsiderate manner of pronouncing on 
facts imperfectly known, so common to travelers, who, 
not wishing to appear deficient in their researches, are 
prone to adopt the most extravagant statements and 
opinions. Giving to the author's case the kindest 
construction, it must have been by mere chance, and 
certainly not from choice, that he generally happened 
to be thrown into company not the most select, and did 
not sufficiently test his opinions by inquiries among 
the better and more enlightened class of the commu- 
nity. How else could he have so exaggerated the de- 
votion of the attendants at church, compared with the 
observance of sacred things in the United States 1 How 
could he have lavished enthusiastic praises on the disor- 
derly habit of the country curates, who^ vow of celibacy, 
voluntarily given only as a means of obtaining a liveli- 
hood, is perpetually broken, to the discredit of all Chris- 
tian belief? The priests in Cuba are not respected; 
on the contrary, they are despised ; and as their conduct 
belies the doctrines they have sworn to propagate, they set 
themselves quietly down to enjoy the bodily comforts of 
this life, without troubling themselves at all about their 
own or their flock's spiritual welfare. The supersti- 
tious credulity and faith in miracles of the monteros, 
or country people, is another of the subjects on which 
the author of the " Notes on Cuba" indulged his 
fruitful fancy. Just so also as to the fact that the 
Bible was zealously and devoutly studied. Would to 
God it were so ! as it would evidence a concern for 



108 CUBA AND 

a future state, no where to be met with in the isl- 
and. The tracts distributed with impunity, which the 
physician " notes" with exceeding pleasure, will cer- 
tainly not excite wonder, wiien the reader is given to 
understand that the most celebrated works against 
Christianity are publicly and unrestrictedly sold 
throughout the country. 

How far it can be said, consistently with truth, that 
the learned and enlightened Bishop of Havana was a 
perfect Tacon, let any inhabitant of the island 
decide, whatever political opinions he may enter- 
tain. Their actions did not evince any similarity 
of character ; and it was reserved for the author 
to discover it in men who always created very dif- 
ferent impressions. Bishop Espada and General Ta- 
con, in times far removed from each other, owed their 
nomination to the liberal party of Spain. When ab- 
solute sway was re-established in the mother-country, 
the former continued to profess liberal views, and 
made successful efforts to extend the sphere of learn- 
ing and education. The latter was ever active in 
crushing public spirit, in organizing a military govern- 
ment, and ruining public institutions, as far as lay in 
his power. The former was persecuted as an insur- 
gent. The latter persecuted those who disapproved 
his omnipotence, and charged them with treason. It 
was of this same nian that the author of the " Notes 
on Cuba" says, " he was a noble instance of the power 
of mind over brute force," and asserts with an air of 
triumph, that on his condemnation " he referred his 
judges to the records of the court as a proof of his 
mild administration." The records of the tribunals 
under his control, with none to publish the most 
common facts without his approbation, like the crim- 
inal statistics, are of little value. But the several 
processes against the objects of his hatred in Spain 
and Cuba, wherein his real character is revealed, and 
the sentence, which from motives of policy was not 



THE CUBANS. 109 

published in Havana by his successor, as the law re- 
quired, might illustrate the point. "Men were some- 
times taken suddenly from the midst of their families, 
where they lived in fancied security," (see the " Notes 
on Cuba,") " were shown the indisputable proofs of 
their guilt, and at once exiled from the island, as inim- 
ical to its government." What manner of procedure 
is this, by which Tacon was enabled to obtain proofs 
of guilt, and to sentence the accused without his know- 
ledge 1 That such a panegyric, in itself revolting, 
should be volunteered by an American writer, is the 
only apology for such acts on the part of those who 
had not, like himself, enjoyed the advantages of a free 
country. So intent was he on exalting the moral re- 
former, as he is pleased to term him, that he mentions 
Tacon' s macadamizing the streets of Havana, and can- 
didly avows that the side-walks were buried by the 
structure, so that, he adds, "it is no wonder the la- 
dies are not inclined to walk," 

It is amusing, to those acqi^ainted with the habits 
and customs of Cuba, to read of wonders in the coun- 
try which no one except the honest doctor has had the 
good fortune to discover. Young ladies visiting bury- 
ing-grounds to enjoy the sight of a funeral, s^s a mat- 
ter of amusement ; Indian agents, monteros, riding 
with muskets, or taking their sweethearts before them 
on the same saddle ; a sacristan, or sexton, becoming 
a prominent character through his knowledge of the 
law, in a village where no law business is transacted ; 
a country oiOficer of justice chanting the church service 
at his wife's funeral ; a marquis winning and exacting 
a dollar from his own slave at a cock-fight ; another 
young lady riding sixty miles on horseback, in a day, 
to dance all the evening ; the stare of women, whose 
total freedom from prudery did not prevent them from 
throwing & furtive glance at this wandering Esculapius, 
who might be sadly and undignifiedly confounded with 
the '•• barber-surgeon practitioners" of the land; the eel- 



110 CUBA AND 

ebrated and favorite " olla podrida," a dish so rare and 
exquisite, and of which Spain may well boast, freely- 
served in the lunatic asylum of Havana ; and one of 
the patients of the institution handing a petition to 
the learned traveler, which the latter, from his know- 
ledge of the Spanish (of which there are abundant spe- 
cimens in his book), is pleased to commend for its pure 
Castilian. Happily though, in his wanderings through 
the island (which by the way, it may be observed, was 
made to widen for his comfort), he was not very diffi- 
cult to please : he was tossed about in rather a shabby 
accoutrement, judging from the horses which dragged 
him along; and he actually began to relish the din- 
ners in the country shops, or what he styles Span- 
ish condiments. Rather than do violence to the cus- 
toms of the land, he gayly joined in a drink of water 
with a porter; and probably from the same motive, 
accepted and did honor to the delicate morsels fur- 
nished by an unknown Creole, a fellow-passenger on 
the railroad to Guines, who, an accident having de- 
tained the cars, generously provided him and others 
with an abundant luncheon. It is therefore singular 
that the author should be the first to observe, that the 
Creole was not only economical, but parsimonious to an 
uncommon degree. " The Irishman," he says, " will 
empty his purse when the Creole will hesitate to spend 
a medio." 

When among country inn-keepers of the lower class 
of Catalonians, and their associates, and the captains of 
the partido, who, according to his own account^ do not 
wash till noon, hearing himself called a Jew (which, 
even as a practical joke, is no sign of good-breeding), 
and animated by practical jokes ^ it is no wonder that 
the writer should have formed strange notions, and ac- 
quired a very imperfect knowledge of many important 
facts. He is made to understand that Guines has been 
increased by the construction of the railroad, and that 
foreigners are looked upon with envy. 



THE CUBANS. ^ 111 

He mistakes some of the above described class for 
the lofty Castilian hidalgo, a true specimen of Avhom 
he probably never met ; and the unmeaning look of ig- 
norance for an expression of contempt of the Creoles. 
The ward of Puebla Nuevo, in the city of Matanzas, 
which has been stationary for many years, he cites as 
an instance of rapid advancement. He is made to be- 
lieve in the existence of a young men's debating society, 
where subjects are discussed which in old Spain would 
not be named. The ludicrous kings of the negro tribes, 
who preside at their dances, he imagines to be engaged 
in directing their moral habits. He gives a glowing 
account of the products of a coffee and of a sugar-plan- 
tation, asserting that in common times the profits of 
the molasses produced on the latter would cover its cur- 
rent expenses . Unacquainted with the frauds committed 
in the reports manufactured for private purposes, and 
with the carelessness with which the statistics of the 
country are taken, by reason of the indolence or inca- 
pacity of the agents, he wonders at the marvelous re- 
sults in the reports of mortality on the estates, and 
which are almost sufficient to make one wish himself a 
slave. 

In fact, there seems to lurk about the author of the 
" Notes" a decided partiality for slavery, an evil which, 
in this age, is lamented even by those whose interest 
and safety require them to uphold it. He describes 
the slave as gay and happy ; enumerates the laws in 
his favor, acknowledging at the same time that they are 
not enforced ; attributes this mismanagement to the 
planters, whom he knows exert no influence in public 
enactments ; and states that baptism and burial is all 
the negro receives in the way of moral and religious 
government ; still maintaining that his condition is bet- 
ter than that of the European peasant and the manu- 
facturing and mining class of England. 

The author of the " Notes on Cuba," whose opin- 
ion appears vacillating, says that the slave trade is a 



112 CUBA AND 

source of wealth to the island, as it formerly was to 
Liverpool and Boston ; that only two thousand blacks 
are imported annually ; and that the whole country is 
in favor of its continuation. As the author in these 
particulars seems to have blindly adopted the slave- 
dealers' cant, it may not be amiss to show the gross 
delusion under which he labored. That Cuba has ac- 
quired her vast agricultural importance by means of 
imported negroes, is an undeniable fact. That by fol- 
lowing another course, she would have attained her 
present extensive though precarious production, remains 
to be proved. To insist, however, at this late period, 
that her wealth is increased by the traffic, is more than 
absurd ; it is absolutely false. It is well known that 
her real estate is, and had been for some time before 
the " Notes on Cuba" were written, fast declining in 
price, notwithstanding his report of its high value. It 
is also well known that the continuation of the slave 
trade has a direct tendency to jeopardize every kind of 
property, and to depreciate more especially the value 
of slaves in the island. It is, moreover, a most per- 
nicious calumny to assert that the country is in favor 
of its continuation, and is as little to be relied on as his 
statement of the number of the imported, which he 
greatly underrates. Neither are the rich and enlight- 
ened planters, who see the fabric of their fortunes tot- 
tering before them, desirous of sustaining it, however 
the voice of public opinion may be assumed to be in 
favor of the selfish views of the few. An estate which 
eight years ago might be sold for $100,000 would not 
at this day command $25,000. A negro who could 
then have been purchased for $500, is at the present 
time to be had for $300. What, then, can be the sen- 
timent of an intelligent community, had they the means 
of expressing it (which the author of the " Notes" 
igrants they have not), other than in opposition to an 
^economical and political error fraught with incessant 

w. ....... »„„„...,.... 



THE CUBANS. * 113 

stream of barbarians continually rushes in and mingles 
with their more civilized brethren, the work of civiliza- 
tion must be much obstructed, and that a restless race 
will ever be ready to second the machinations of wily 
plotters. The increase of the race by marriage is not 
feasible, and the warfare of the abolitionists will be 
most perseveringly prosecuted. They will not be de- 
luded by the pretended humanity of the trade, such as 
we find on page 263 and others. The conviction of 
this truth has driven the more enlightened class from 
the markets, and lessened the price of a commodity, 
unfortunately so abundantly profitable, that it can bear 
great depression in price. The pretence that the slave 
trade betters the condition of the bondmen, by rescuing 
them from the hands of cruel African masters, who en- 
slave their conquered enemies, is an argument which 
the author was taught by slave-dealers, and is too bare- 
faced to receive countenance from reflecting men, even 
in Cuba. If there were no purchasers and no demand, 
the object of making prisoners of war among a barba- 
rous people would be removed. Nay, the wars them- 
selves, without their tempting and profitable pecuniary 
results, would cease, and the missionary be enabled to 
proclaim the gospel in the wilds of Africa. 

Had the learned physician consulted the more re- 
spectable class of inhabitants, whom he certainly would 
not meet where practical jokes are allowed, and who, 
long before his excursion to the island, had presented 
petitions to government, together with statements of the 
perilous crisis which awaited the country, he never 
would have ventured the following singular prophecy : 
" Cuba has now nothing to fear from her slaves, what- 
ever influence her increasing free colored population 
may hereafter exercise on her safety." He would not 
have been forced to add an appendix, even before the 
publication of his work, wherein his superficial view of 
the most serious matters is clearly exhibited. So un- 
lucky was he, that he presumed to foretell that the free 



114 CUBA AND 

blacks would in any movement join the whites. And 
it is reasonable to suppose that while he wrote, the ma- 
chinations of the free-colored of all shades, which have 
since come to light, were actually in progress. Had 
he drank at purer fountains, his blunders would, never- 
theless, have been amusing ; among which, his discov- 
ery of two represented classes is not the least — a ver- 
itable enigma. For it would be impossible to name 
any class of Cubans which is represented in the land. 

The town of Cardenas has been denied direct com- 
merce with foreign or even Spanish European ports. 
The production of sugar and the maintenance of all 
classes, so dependent on imports for most articles, were 
made to bear the additional expenses of a forced coast- 
ing shipment, because the administration considered it 
both expensive and favorable to contraband. The au- 
thor of the " Notes on Cuba," though confessing at 
times the absolute nullity of the inhabitants as to all 
public measures, boldly asserts, in relation to removing 
the burdens imposed on the Cardenas trade, that " the 
merchants of Havana and Matanzas, who now export 
all its produce, have as yet had influence to defeat ev- 
ery movement for that object." It was in order to do 
away the alleged objections to this arrangement that the 
population of Cardenas built the custom-house, and not 
as an evidence of their readiness to pay its dues, as the 
author would have it. The convenience of the bay, the 
distances to other towns, the vision of the drunken 
Irishman charging the insurgents, and, in fact, all the 
information he obtained in the neighborhood of Carde- 
nas, may be classed among the numberless fancies of 
his book. He erroneously estimates the duty on sales 
of real estate, called Alcabala, at $4,000,000, and, 
perhaps inconsiderately, and certainly with injustice, 
stigmatizes all the predecessors of General Valdez, by 
asserting, without an exception, that it was usual for 
captain-generals to receive a doubloon for every negro 
landed in Cuba. On the other hand, he draws an un- 



THE CUBANS. 115 

couth picture of the police, as much at variance with 
itself as with truth. When in a flattering mood he 
represents it as so active and excellent, that if it had 
any system, or were any thing else than a perpetual 
miracle, and could be described, he would surely pro- 
pose its adoption in the United States. 

Let the work speak for itself : " A country store had 
been broken open, and two or three men had been eased 
of their purses on the public road. The whole partido 
was aroused like a hive of bees against which a mis- 
chievous urchin had thrown a stone. The hitherto 
quiet inhabitants went about armed to the teeth, and 
there was great danger of their killing each other 
through mistake. The captain of the partido mean- 
while was not idle. Visiting every dwelling in his ju- 
risdiction, he compelled those who could not give a good 
account of themselves, and had not domiciliary pass- 
ports, to quit the partido. Others on whom suspicion 
rested he sent as prisoners to Matanzas, there to prove 
their innocence ; a mode of administering justice quite 
in vogue here, but which would depopulate many a 
section in other countries, and, I would add, that must 
have perfectly satisfied those robbed on the highway. 

" These petty judges," he adds, with great truth, 
" are with very few exceptions, from Spain, a Creole 
being scarcely ever intrusted with the office, and being 
without salaries, like so many vultures they prey upon 
the unprotected within their jurisdiction." 

Is it credible that it is of the same country we read 
elsewhere in his work : 

" Intoxication is very rare ; the dormant passions 
are not aroused by it, and the laws are enforced. With 
all the corruption of the bench in Cuba, the murderer 
very seldom escapes from punishment ; and so well is 
justice administered, in certain cases, that that foul 
excrescence on civilization, and most deliberate defier 
of the laws of God, the duellist, receives no mercy, and 
the crime is now unknown on the island." 



116 CUBA AND 

Make a law to expel every person who cannot give a 
good account of himself, on the commission of a crime ; 
name vultures for police agents ; place corrupt judges 
on the bench, and a country will probably be free from 
excrescence, i. e., murder and duelling ! 

Even in the appendix, written after the recent insur- 
rection, which would never have extended so far had the 
island not been ruled without the concurrence of the 
landholders, the author of the " Notes," seeing that his 
prophecies had wholly failed, still adheres to the dark 
banner under which he had enlisted, and still seeks the 
means of palliating what has and can have no excuse 
among civilized nations. In extenuation of the acts 
committed in Cuba during the judicial proceedings, he 
cites the punishments inflicted by the English in Dub- 
lin half a century ago, and adds, that if greater ex- 
cesses were committed in the Antille, it was because 
they could be committed with greater impunity. What- 
ever horrors it has been the fate of the latter to witness, 
let not the abolitionist ascribe them to slavery. The 
author has his answer : " Abandoned to the caprice of 
the sub-commissions that visited the plantations, the 
whole population, afraid to utter one word against their 
acts, in despair saw their property sacrificed, and were 
compelled to witness the most revolting scenes of cru- 
elty." 

To the violent and powerful slave-trade party must, 
nevertheless, be ascribed, in a great measure, the errors 
and excesses committed in the investigation of the ne- 
gro plots. This fruitful source of future danger, like 
all the other evils which threaten Cuba, must be attrib- 
uted to that sordid class who, regardless of the welfare 
of the country, are wholly intent upon the acquisition 
of wealth. 



THE CUBANS. 117 



CHAPTER IV. 

Habits and Customs of the Island. — " Letters from Cuba." — Visit to 
the Estate of Don Santiago. — The Quitrin. — The Calesero. — 
Roads. — The Tavern of " La Perfecta." — Hard Fare. — Manners 
Distress. — Interesting Account of Himself — Sugar Estate. — Don 
Santiago's Patriotism. — The Sugar Master. — Anecdotes. — Musical 
taste of the Cubans. — The Cuban Press. — Story of Maria del Rosa- 
rio. — Evils and Abuses of the Administration of Justice. 

Pursuing the plan first to give a correct idea of the 
Creole inhabitants of Cuba, in the several relations of 
life, before setting forth an account of the grievances 
and oppressions under which they now groan, several 
extracts are here made from a series of papers en- 
titled " Letters from Cuba," which first appeared in 
the Knickerbocker Magazine, about 1845. The first 
contains an account of a visit to a sugar estate, in- 
cluding the incidents of the journey. 

I told you in my last, that I was just starting for 
Don Santiago's estate, and in his company. Our con- 
veyance was a two-wheeled vehicle, very much like 
our "gigs," although larger, and set upon leather 
straps, which make it quite easy over the uneven roads 
of the country. It was drawn by three horses har- 
nessed abreast ; the one on the right side guided by 
my friend from his seat next to me in the " quitrin,^' 
the middle one tackled in the shafts, and the left one 
for the " calesero,'^ or driver, to mount. The calesero 
had on well-polished leather boots, buckled all the way 
from the feet to the knee, thence open and stiff to the 
hip ; a straw hat about nine inches high, with a mod- 
erate brim, and handsome colored ribbon, a black cra- 
vat, and a livery with silver ornaments. His knee 
buckles, his large heavy spurs, and the handle of his 



118 CUBA AND 

long whip, were of fine silver. After three hours' 
swift travel in the vicinity of the city (where the turn- 
pike roads, which are kept in fine condition at a great 
expense, by the careful attention of the junto de fo- 
mento, presented an easy path), we gradually began to 
notice the uneven and broken way, which appeared to 
have received its improvement rather from continual 
travel than from any intended human agency. In 
some of these irregular avenues the soil, which is very 
soft and black, and rendered pliable by the heavy 
rains, would sink beneath the wheels of the " quitrin," 
while the heavy carts, with wheels seven feet in diam- 
eter, which we occasionally met on the way, cut deep 
and continuous trenches all along the road. My friend 
made me notice particularly that the peculiar ability 
of a calesero consisted in driving rapidly along the 
margin of these trenches, sometimes more than three 
feet deep, and extending several miles, without ever 
allowing the carriage-wheels to drop into them on 
either side. He likewise shows his skill in avoiding 
the stones, loose and fixed, which are scattered in the 
road. As I beheld the monstrous carts, loaded with 
two hogsheads of nearly two hundred gallons each, or 
eight boxes of sugar, constantly destroying by their 
large thin wheels the few repairs occasionally at- 
tempted, in addition to the several obstacles that re- 
quire the ever-vigilant eye of the driver to avoid colli- 
sion or excessive jolting, I was convinced that no other 
mode of conveyance would be better adapted to the 
condition of things. 

Travelers are very much disposed to find fault with 
whatever may difier from their preconceived notions, 
or the standard to which habit has fashioned their 
opinions. It often happens, however, that further 
consideration furnishes some very good reason for not 
adopting what, in other circumstances, would be the 
height of perfection. I will give you an instance. 
You may frequently have heard that manuring land is 



TU^ CUBA2^S. 



fl9 



not practiced in Cuba. In the staple production, 
sugar, the price of land is but an inferior item of the 
heavy capital to be invested ; and so long as the dis- 
tance of the new lands from market does not make the 
transportation of cane by carts too inconvenient, it will 
be more advantageous to work the new soil and obtain 
its virgin growth, than to manure the old fields, where 
manual labor is the most expensive. The ready mar- 
ket for vegetables raised near the city of Havana, 
aflfords great encouragement to the farmer's assiduity ; 
and you will accordingly perceive that the soil is sub- 
jected to a very elaborate and skillful system of culti- 
vation. Some of the planters, who have no new lands 
near them, are unwilling to abandon the costly build- 
ings required on their estates, and consequently give 
very particular attention to improving their lands by 
manuring and the use of the plough. 

Our black calesero drove around numberless small 
and large stones, up and down hill, and along the 
trenches made by the carts, and more than once ap- 
proached close upon the verge of a precipice, but with- 
out diminishing the rapidity of his motion. Occasion- 
ally he would meet an acquaintance of either color, to 
whom he bowed with a courtly smile. Although my 
friend Don Santiago did not usually stop for any meals 
on the road, to gratify my desire of seeing every thing, 
the calesero drove gallantly up to the tavern of " La 

Perfecta," in the village of . Under the shelter 

of a wide shed, which ran round it, a number of horses 
were standing — some tied to the posts, others with 
their riders on them, who, without dismounting from 
their large straw saddles, were making purchases, or 
conversing with those standing about them. We were 
shown into a small room, a little more cleanly than 
the rest of the house, and in a short time were served 
with some very tough beef, strongly sea,soned with gar- 
lic, some fried eggs, a bit of very salt ham, coffee with 
dirty sugar, and no milk. 



120 CUBA AND 

The tavern-keeper, who seemed delighted that he 
was able to supply us with such inviting fare, asked us 
at times how we liked the service, adding that it was 
lucky for us that we had come on Wednesday, because 
Sundays and Wednesdays were the days for killing. 
" But your beef is rather tough," said Don Santiago. 
*' And how could it be otherwise?" he answered. " In 
the first place, old oxen are the cheapest article to be 
found. They are the heaviest also, which is another 
advantage, as the duty is just the same on large as on 
small cattle. When the butcher happens to kill a two- 
years'-old calf, he is sure to lose by it, as the duty dis- 
proportionably increases the cost." Don Santiago also 
remarked to me, that as the treasury agents sold the 
privilege of killing to the highest bidder, without any 
particular regard to the wishes of the public, the only 
point they considered was the increase of the revenue, 
the provision for the benefit of the community being ob- 
served as mere matter of form ; and that a petition was 
never made or expected to be made on the part of in- 
dividuals, who found it always more to their interest to 
to endure abuses than to complain of them. 

We were thus far beginning to discuss matters of 
importance, when, the inn-keeper having retired, Man- 
uel, our black driver, in the uncouth accoutrement I 
have described, somewhat bespattered with mud, hold- 
ing his whip in his left hand, and his hat in his right, 
entered our room, swinging like a sailor, in order to 
avoid the embarrassment in walking caused by the 
large ears of his boots. " Child," said he, addressing 
his master, who was certainly much older than himself, 
" I want to speak privately with the child ;" and he 
looked toward me. Don Santiago told him that I was 
a foreigner, and he might speak without reserve. I 
was so anxious to pick up any interesting matter re- 
garding the country, that I gladly availed myself of the 
opportunity, and remained in the room. 

" The child knows," added Manuel, " that ever since 



THE CUBANS. 



121 



I came to this country, ever since I was a mere baby, 
I have been with your bounty, and in the child's fami- 
ly. Your bounty is my father and my mother. I 
have nothing in the world besides. When I have my 
sorrows, to whom shall I tell them but the child 1 And 
if the child reject me, what shall I do? Oh, my God !" 

"But, Manuel," interrupted Don Santiago, "what 
is the matter ? what ails you ? have you been whipped ? 
have you been in want of any thing 1 are you ill'? do 
you wish to have another master V^ 

" Another master!" continued Manuel ; " it is well 
for the child to suspect one of that wish after being so 
many years in the house ! Alas ! what would the good 
old gentleman say, were he to rise from the hole, if he 
saw and heard the strange things that have happened 
in these days ! The negro name, how it has gone 
down ! And after passing all our life in the service of 
such good masters as the child, no matter what we do 
(because there are some bad slaves, who have acted im- 
properly), we are all doomed to lose the confidence we 
enjoyed. If I say, me, Manuel, the old calesero of the 
family of Cisueros, that I love my master, or his chil- 
dren ; if the child is sick, and I inquire, as I always 
have done, why, I am only making believe." 

Don Santiago kindly reproved Manuel, wishing him 
to be more precise in his expostulation. 

" Very well, my master," said Manuel ; " I know 
this is not a suitable place ; but at home I could not 
speak, and my heart was so low, I could not wait." 

" But, Manuel," said Don Santiago, " have I ever 
accused you'?" " No," answered Manuel, " you have 
not. But I will tell you all, right away. You know 
how much I have tried to please the ' nina.'* My 

* By " nina," the feminine of child, Manuel meant Don Santiago's 
wife. A distinguished Spanish writer observed to me, that the term 
" child" was a delicate flattery (since it implied youth), invented by 
the negroes to avoid the more humiliating expression, "Sumerced,^' 
which signifies " Your bounty." 

6 



122 CUBA AND 

business always has been to have the volante clean and 
ready. But if your nina wishes me to go of errands, 
to help the cook on some holidays, let any one say if 
Manuel refused ; let any one say if he put a bad face 
to it, as would have done the caleseros of the Montal- 
vos, the Charones, or the Herreras, or any of those 
great families, who are no better than the family of the 
child. No such thing : always at hand, always to be 
found, always cheerful ; and now the nina says I am 
surly ; I want to shake off her authority ! ' Well,' says 
I to myself, ' the nina is not pleased with me, but if I 
go tell my master, in these hard times for the black 
color, he will, perhaps, think bad of me. Ah, Manuel ! 
have patience V says I ; and then I go and purchase a 
wax candle with the same money the child gave me last 
week, and which I always spend in lottery tickets at 
the grocer's store at the corner,* and right before the 
image of the Virgin of Mount Carmelo, which I nailed 
in the room of the harness of the volante, I lighted it 
all day and night until it wasted away. I am a little 
ashamed to tell these things, because I know you gen- 
tlemen laugh at them. But pardon me ; for the poor 
slave, when his heart is made so very small, has no help 
but to go to prayer. Then I thought things were going 
to right again ; when yesterday morning, because the 
wheel of the volante went once over a stone, which cer- 
tainly seldom happens, when I am mounted on the horse, 
the nina said I did it on purpose ; that I was as great 
a conspirator as any ; and because I staid late at the 
street-door last night, playing on the ' tiple,'t as I have 
always done, your nina said your bounty ought to get 
me a place in the opera-house, and have one enemy less 
near her person. Alas, child, I cannot help it; I can 
no more bear it ; the child knows my heart." 

As the scene was becoming too pathetic for the place, 
Don Santiago urged Manuel to be consoled, adding, 

* The negro spends nearly all the money he can get in this way. 
t A favorite negro instrument. 



THE CUBANS. 



f23 



that he would remind the lady of his good services, and 
do away any unfavorable impression she might have re- 
specting him. Manual appeared relieved, and walked 
to his horses, carefully balancing his body as he went 
along. We followed, jumped into the volante, and 
hurried from the tavern. 

On arriving at the estate, we stopped at the dwell- 
ing-house, which, as the don was not expected, was far 
from being properly prepared to receive us. He apol- 
ogized, and explained that he preferred all these incon- 
veniences to giving previous notice of his coming. He 
calculated too much, perhaps, on the idea of taking his 
operarios, or workmen, by surprise ; and observed to 
me that he once found all the white persons employed 
on his plantation gone to a ball, and the negroes left by 
themselves ; and that an estate was not unfrequently 
made the rendezvous of gamblers. We walked over to 
the square of buildings, which are generally placed in 
the centre of the plantation, and found them in the in- 
variable respective order observed here : the mill and 
the boiling-house in the west part, the baggage-house 
still farther w^est, and the purging-house and drying- 
drawer in the north, so that the latter may receive the 
rays of the sun from morning till night. 

During our short absence the house had been com- 
fortably arranged. We found two or three black dam- 
sels, just dressed in new and shining calico frocks, with 
silk shoes, worn slip-shod, red shawls, and hair ar- 
ranged in very fine tresses, and very tight on the head. 
The table was set, our rooms neatly disposed, and our 
beds ready to receive us, should we feel disposed to 
take before dinner what the Spanish call the prebenda- 
ry's or canonical nap. I preferred a small room where 
I found some old books covered with dust, which ap- 
peared not to have been disturbed for years. Don 
Santiago, divining my intention, ordered one of the 
black girls to dust them off; and, sitting down, awaited 
what I should say of the assortment, which I was de- 



124 CUBA AND 

termined to examine. I read aloud the title of tlie first 
pamphlet I laid my hand on : " Expediente de las Cor- 
tes Extraordinaria, Sobre Trafico, y esclavitud de Ne- 
gros ;" 1811. 

" Quite other days than the present," said my friend ; 
"read that single phrase;" and he turned over the 
pages until he found it ; " read it, and be astonished 
at the change. That was the way our public bodies 
addressed the government when they had dignity, and 
were not spurned as they now are." The phrase which 
seemed to have fixed Don Santiago's attention was the 
following : " And we would conclude by saying on these 
subjects, what our fidelity and honor require, that Span- 
iards should be Spaniards every where, especially in 
those countries which, moist with their blood, or the 
sweat of their brow, acknowledge them conquerors and 
founders ; and that if we were loyal under sufferings, 
we could not be less so, enjoying the splendors and ad- 
vantages which now encircle the Spanish name." 

" How changed ! how changed !" continued Don San- 
tiago ; " nobody can speak so now ; and, if he did, 
he would be obliged to lament, as the calesero did 
this morning, that no one believed or dared acknowledge 
he believed him. The moneda-corriente, the pass- 
word of all the government people, is to assert and 
maintain, whether they really think so or not, that we, 
the Creoles, are all insurgents. We have been placed 
in Manuel's case, you see." 

Don Santiago's burst of indignation, like all such 
emotions with the Cubans, soon subsided ; and adjust- 
ing his rather loose vest over his ample stomach, he went 
out to meet the sugar master, whom he had been for 
some time expecting. The latter was a pale, thin man, 
about five feet six inches in height. This being the 
season when those of his occupation have no employ- 
ment, he appeared in full dress : a wide-brimmed straw- 
hat ; blue striped breeches, fastened to his waist ; a 
white embroidered shirt hanging loosely over them ; a 



THE CUBANS. 125 

very large straight sword, made at the factory of Gu- 
anabaioa, with a silver handle, ornamented with pre- 
cious stones ; his shirt-collar and sleeves confined with 
gold buckles ; an embroidered cambric handkerchief 
tied loosely round his neck ; pumps cut quite low ; and 
heavy silver spurs. Were it not for the finery above 
described, you might fancy, from his mode of wearing 
his shirt, that he was not altogether dressed. I have 
often thought what a figure a man thus attired would 
make on the sidewalks in Broadway ! But you may 
be assured, that were he placed there, he would be per- 
fectly at ease ; for you can have no idea of the bold, in- 
dependent manner peculiar to the " guageros," or 
country people of Cuba. 

" How has it fared with the Senor Don Santiago?" 
said he, as he presented his hand to his employer, in 
the most cordial and easy manner. 

" Very well, Perez," said the former ; " as well as 
it can fare with the planters now-a-days, with such ter- 
rible occurrences, and such small crops and low prices." 

" Ah ! the Senor Don Santiago has no reason to com- 
plain. He fares better than many ; and as for the 
quality of the sugar, he must be aware that there is 
none better in the market." 

" You are mistaken there," replied the planter ; "for 
many better sugars than mine have gone from the port 
of Havana." 

" You say so," continued Perez, sitting himself down 
as Don Santiago had done, " and so it may be too ; but 
considering the quality of the cane, and the materials, 
and the fuel, I am sure that the man is not yet born 
who could improve my sugar." 

" Remember," answered the don, " remember my 
near neighbor, with the same quality of land, and, I am 
certain, with no better help than I give you, what a 
superior article he makes." 

" So have I, ever since the Senor Don Santiago turned 
away the impudent ox-driver, who used to throw sour 



126 CUBA AND 

juice from the ditches into the juice-gutter, in order to 
spoil my sugar. But as for any man's improving my 
work, that cannot be. The Senor Don Santiago must 
know that I was born in the boiling-houses, was brought 
up in them, and my hair has grown gray in them. The 
senor should likewise bear in mind that I do not wear 
a hat* in the boiling-house. No, sir, no hat. Why 
should 1 1 That will do for those who are new in the 
trade. I can smell the ' guarapo' at one league's dis- 
tance. The senor may perhaps remember the old 

Count of . He it was who made me follow the 

trade ; and never did that estate produce a better ar- 
ticle than while I was there ; and so the count used to 
say, and make me presents, and call me when he had 
company ; and we went along very well. He used al- 
ways to take me along with him to the cock-fightings, 
and say he did not care for two or twenty boilers-full 
lost, for the pleasure of having me at his side on these 
expeditions. At that time he had an Indian cock, the 
most sprightly and sure bird I ever saw ; and the count 
would have nobody touch him but myself. But I per- 
ceive the senor has a visitor, and I can come another 



" No matter for that," said Don Santiago, who no- 
ticed how delighted I was ; " tell us how you came to 
leave the old Count of ." 

" Leave him ! why I should have left him a thousand 
times, if he had been my own father. I had just worked 
the old cane-fields, and coming to a new one, which was 
overgrown and mostly decayed, the sugar, of course, 
did not look like the rest in the boiling-houses ; al- 
though, had the clay been laid on it, I am sure it would 
have given the very best result. I remember it was 
the countess' birthday, and just after dinner there 
comes a large party of gentlemen and ladies into the 
boiling-house, all gay and lively, while I was cursing 

* The hat is used to attract the vapors over the kettles, in order to 
smell and judge how the sugar is. 



THE CUI3ANS. 127 

the cane. They all looked at the sugar, and made faces 
at it ; and by and by, who should come to me but the 
countess herself, and before every body, even the over- 
seer's wife, who came peeping in, to rejoice in my 
trouble, tells me, ' Why, Perez, I see you know how to 
manufacture dirt as well as sugar !' " 

" Was that all the cause of your leaving the count 1" 
inquired Don Santiago. 

" No, sir ; it did not end there. The senor may re- 
member how devout the old countess used to be. She 
had always gowns for the Virgin and Saint Francis to 
make ; and she was proud of it, too, the sweet lady ! 
Well, I turned to her at once, and said : ' My lady 
the countess would do quite as well to attend to the 
dressing of saints, which she understands, than to the 
making of sugar, which she does not.' If you had seen 
what an uproar was raised then ! All I can tell the 
senor is, that I heard the countess tell her husband, 
' Pancho, do not let this man sleep here this night !' 
But I had the pleasure, many years after, to be recalled 
to the old count. Twenty sugar masters had been 
tending his boiling-house. All lost ; not one grain of 
sugar fit to be looked at. At last the count sent for 
me. ' Well, Perez, you see how I am,' said he. ' But 
the count has been permitting himself to be ruined,' I 
answered, ' because he wishes to do so. Now from here 
is nearly one league, yet I can without hesitation say 
that they are burning the juice with too much lime.' 
Two hours after the best sugar ever made was drawing 
from the kettles. They had been using twelve cocoa- 
nuts of lime ; I at once reduced it to three. My nose 
could not fail me !" 

It is on account of this use of the olfactory nerves, 
Don Santiago informed me, that his utmost care with 
the sugar masters during " crop season" is required 
to prevent their taking cold. 

Before dismissing the sugar master, I must tell 
you an anecdote, which I heard from Don Santiago. 



128 • CUBA AND 

The latter had given him a short elementary treatise 
on the manufacture of sugar ; and having asked him 
several times whether he had read it or not, Perez, 
after saying that he had a tiple ; that he understood 
the trade : and repeating all the praises of himself 
with which I have favored you, finally broke out with : 
" The Senor Don Santiago must excuse me ; but what 
could a man like me, brought up in boiling-houses, 
learn from any of those foreigners, or their foreign 
contrivances 1 I am in nature's way, which is always 
the best, and am no child to begin my a b c now !" 

Among the various means of spending my time, I 
have occasionally read some of Don Santiago's books 
and pamphlets, endeavoring to obtain from them some 
information upon the political situation of this island 
in latter years. If you would have exact ideas take 
the subject as patiently as I have ; for there exists in 
the United States, a lamentable ignorance of the po- 
litical system of government in Cuba, and very erro- 
neous opinions of its nature. 

From the following extract some idea can be gained 
of the musical taste of the Cubans, and the hyperbole 
and fiction which are necessary characteristics of the 
Cuban press : 

" I was presented not long ago at the tertulia, of 
St. Cecilia, one of the three very respectable philhar- 
monic societies, which are the constant resort of the 
fashionable world of Havana. By means of a small 
stipend the members of these communities are enabled 
to have concerts and two hours of dancing every week, 
which in a great measure take the place of the agreea- 
ble parties we enjoy so much at home. Of late, com- 
plete operas have often been performed, altogether by 
amateurs. The Lucia di Lammermoor, the Pirata, 
and the Barbiere de Seville have repeatedly called forth 
the applause of crowded audiences. Indeed, we must 
admit that there is throughout this country a very 



THE CUBANS. 129 

general and delicate taste for music, which is not to 
be found in our colder region. I do not however con- 
sider the higher latitude the sole cause of this differ- 
ence. Where the genius of man is crushed, and 
forced from its natural channel, like the waters of the 
fountain it will rise to the level of its outlet in another. 
Take from American society the exciting interests of 
political ambition ; restrain their bold mercantile, 
manufacturing, and agricultural enterprise by unwise 
legislation ; shackle and repress their free spirit, and 
they would instinctively seek other spheres of exer- 
tion, and consequently become greater proficients in 
the fine arts. Give free institutions to Italy, and her 
dazzling musical superiority would gradually sink to 
an equality with the rest of the world. 

" In most countries you would naturally conclude that 
by taking up a newspaper a correct knowledge of all 
the interesting events of the day might be obtained : 
not so here ; and the reason is to be found in the strict 
censorship exercised over the publication of the most 
trifling article, the gra,nt depending upon the mere will 
of the censor. This state of the public press origin- 
ates a conventional emphatic style of writing, which 
every body reads without surprise in all the periodi- 
cals of the city, and every body translates into the 
veritable meaning, as a matter of course. To a for- 
eigner, however, unaccustomed to this everlasting hy- 
perbole, extending its poetry and fiction to the most 
common acts of every-day life, it is difficult to get into 
the habit of translating. It is, withal, very important 
that the newspapers of the United States should be put 
on their guard ; for it often excites a smile with those 
who are here, to see the apparent or real candor which 
they exhibit in repeating the fairy dreams of the Cuban 
press. But I am occasionally amused with the efforts 
of some able writers, who give interest to the period- 
icals by an airy, delicate style, which, though charac- 
terized by great enthusiasm and warmth of feeling. 



130 CUBA AND 

vented in exaggerated expressions, is still pleasing to 
the reader. The editor of the " Diario de Avisos^'^^ 
Don Ramon de Palma, is a remarkable specimen of 
this kind ; a distinguished literary character, and both 
as a poet and a prose writer, excelling in that lively 
and graceful, I had almost said ethereal, manner, for 
which the French are distinguished. His introductions 
to the periodical reports of the fashions, of the public 
amusements, and various little incidents which enter- 
tain the fashionable world, affect one almost like the 
perusal of an oriental tale ; and yet how melancholy to 
behold such a waste of genius, such a perversion of 
mind, and of intellectual effort, arising solely from the 
tyranny of a government whose intent appears to be to 
encourage every thing that can render the inhabitants 
forgetful of their own interests." 

Here is an extract illustrating the peculiar method 
of administering justice in Havana : 

" I have some how or other become quite attached to 
a little neighbor of mine, a colored woman, who every 
morning is to be seen at the vegetable market, sitting 
near the corner of the Calle de la Cuva, in the Plaza 
Vieja ; surrounded by sweet potatoes and plantains, 
and little piles of beans, turnips, tomatoes, egg-pears, 
dried corn, and so forth, set upon several coarse straw 
mats ; animated and cheerful, and turning round in her 
large, easy leather chair, to talk to her numerous ac- 
quaintances, or to persuade her customers into a bar- 
gain, and occasionally answering some flattering, and 
but too significant, though pubEc, insinuation of her 
enamored gallants, as naturally and coolly as if it in 
no way concerned her. I have often wondered, while 
observing her at her usual station, so active, so busy 
and pleasant, and so perfectly agreeable to every one, 
how the apparent art of a coarse, but withal grateful, 
politeness had been acquired by this woman. There 
she would sit for hours and hours, in her very loose 
calico dress, with a yellow-and-black shawl, a clean 



THE CUBANS. 131 

Madras handkerchief on her head, green silk shoes, 
no stockings, a fat, fresh, happy face, beautiful white 
teeth, rings of all kinds on her fingers, ear-rings, brace- 
lets, and a coral necklace, brilliant on the black surface 
of her smooth skin. Why I should feel any more in- 
terest in ' Maria del Rosario' than in any of the other 
dealers in the market, I know not ; but certain it is, 
that I was agreeably attracted by her manner, and 
thought I read in her looks evident demonstrations of a 
feeling soul within. 

" Having got into conversation with her one morning, 
when I was tempted to buy some of her really beautiful 
Avocado pears, I soon after had a fit opportunity to be 
convinced of the truth of my surmise. At ten o'clock, 
having paid the commissary a tax for the privilege of 
selling in the market, she would retire to her dwelling, 
which was a small wooden house, away off in the Bar- 
rio de San Lazaro, facing the boisterous beatings of 
the ocean at the Punta, and looking as desolate and 
dreary as the countenance of the inmate was invariably 
cheerful and calm. There she would commence a new 
task, that of washing and ironing, which kept her in 
constant labor until late in the evening. As her in- 
dustry appeared to me so unavailing and endless, I was 
induced to question her particularly about her private 
affairs. Thus I became acquainted with the following 
facts : Poor Rosario had come from the country of the 
Mandingoes, in her early youth ; had been sold to a 
wealthy family, where she had enjoyed many hours of 
leisure, which she so employed as to obtain the means 
of purchasing her freedom. But since the patronage 
of her former master was no longer hers, the petty ex- 
actions of the commissaries and sub-commissaries of 
the police ate up nearly all her earnings. On a great 
festival she had not complied with the order of having 
a lighted lantern at her street-door, and was obliged to 
pay a fine for the infraction. One of the female serv- 
ants living with her had let her license run five or six 



132 CUBA AND 

days beyond its time without renewing it, which brought 
upon poor Rosario the charge of keeping unlicensed per- 
sons of color at her house. There was a number of 
similar unfortunate unavoidable little committals, which 
caused her incessant trouble and expense. But her 
most serious source of misery arose from her determin- 
ation to obtain from a captain of a regiment, stationed 
at Havana, her long-standing bill for washing. All her 
endeavors, through the under-menials of justice, with 
whom she w^as in constant contact, having proved fruit- 
less, she appeared one morning at the audience of the 
captain-general, to establish her claim against her 
debtor. From the moment she stated at the lower 
bureau her object, she was evidently an unwelcome 
visitor, and was looked upon as a most daring woman. 
She lost the whole of one morning to get the order to 
appear ; she could hardly find any one to execute it ; 
and was harassed and kept waiting for a number of 
days,, until her perseverance overcame all obstacles, 
and she had the satisfaction of appearing at the tri- 
bune with the representative of her debtor, a shrewd, 
diminutive, sly, dapper, old man, abundant in words, 
scant of ideas, and as little concerned in the clear- 
ing of the case as she was desirous of making it 
distinct. Her heart nearly failed her when she saw 
that instead of the imposing presence of the captain- 
general, she was only heard by a beardless officer, ver- 
bally commissioned by his excellency. The latter, 
nevertheless, took special care to sign all the judicial 
acts, as if he had been present at them, so as to receive 
the fees. It was alleged, on the part of the debtor, that 
though the instructions received from his party were not 
perfectly satisfactory, there had at least been what the law 
styled plus petitior, the bill having been overcharged ; 
that it was subject to a liquidation, and that the case 
khould be written down and followed through the regu- 
lar order of proceedings. There was no one to answer 
for her, tliat; the apaount being a small one, it should be 



THE CUBANS. * 133 

decided at once, and Rosario had the sad alternative of 
abandoning her claim, or throwing herself in the ocean 
of a Cuba law-suit, with the additional cause of dread 
of her antagonist, who was a European ofl&cer in ac- 
tive service. 

" On the evening of her appearance at court, I called 
on my poor friend, whose fate became interesting to 
me ; and soon after my inquiries had been answered, 
the same little man who acted for the captain at the 
,, came in. 

Well,' said he, at once, with the air of most pro- 
found indifference to her sorrows, ' I have come to see 
you merely for your own sake, for I would not have 
you get into trouble. You are yet in time : it will be 
my business to press the suit hereafter, and you will be 
obliged in three days' time to name your own procura- 
dor, or law-agent, and supply him with about as much 
money for expenses as the debt amounts to. I propose 
to you to reduce the eighty-two dollars you claim, to 
thirty-four, which will be paid by me in a reasonable 
time ; and you pay the charges of the suit as far as 
they go, now, and thank me too ; for you do not know 
what it is to get yourself into trouble with the army.' 

" During this conversation, Rosario occasionally 
looked at me, as if to seek advice ; and whether she 
read in my countenance decided marks of indignation, 
or not, she mustered courage, and in spite of the threats 
of the agent, and of the under-commissary of police, 
who came to stand by him, and to censure the steps 
she had taken, she insisted upon going on with her 
suit. 

" From this time, it was no longer in Rosario's power 
to appease, with comparatively trifling gifts, the insa- 
tiable avarice and ill-nature of the commissaries. Just 
as the law-agent had threatened, the suit was followed 
on in writing, with more activity on the part of the de- 
fendant, who represented himself as very indignant; 
and the wretched and disconsolate washerwoman was 



134 CUBA AND 

obliged to borrow money in order to carry it on. She 
had of course named an agent for herself, such as she 
could find, who would take charge of so troublesome 
and unpromising an aJBfair ; and though now and then 
soothed with the hopes of obtaining one favorable res- 
olution, there was nothing very positive in the result, 
excepting that time, money, and patience were lost. 
At last, I was so moved by her distress that I resolved 
to do something for her ; and, having secured a respect- 
able friend among the lawyers, I prevailed upon him to 
see into her case. Immediately after this, my friend 
had the woman's agent called to him, so as to obtain 
and peruse the proceedings, so far as they had been 
advanced ; and I saw such a change in the manner of 
the commissaries, and the little contemptible set of 
agents employed in the business, that I began to feel 
as if I had done a great deal for the woman. To sat 
isfy myself on the subject — for Rosario was already 
overpowering in her thanks, and in the fullness of her 
heart, begged me to allow her to do my washing for 
nothing — I hastened one morning to my learned friend 
of the law. Behind a rather high table, literally cov- 
ered with processes, or ' autos,' my friend was negli- 
gently seated, in a huge, Spanish easy-chair. He 
was surrounded by a few business men, who seemed 
waiting for their turn to speak with him ; and altoge- 
ther taken up with the brief instructions of notary 
clerks and agents. At times he would place his sig- 
nature at the bottom of some petition or writing ; and 
invariably sustained the unmoved countenance of an 
old warrior, no matter what ponderous or dreadful tale 
or information was communicated to him. On seeing 
me come in, he for one moment looked as if he were 
going to rise from the drudgery which surrounded him, 
and as if he could smile over it with me ; but the next 
instant he sank back into his usual tone, bowed slightly 
to me, and turned unconsciously around on the anxious 
circle which pressed about him. 



THE CUBANS. 1^5 

" ' I have seen the process of your proteg6,' said he, 
at last, when an opportunity offered to attend on me, 
' and am afraid that nothing can be done for her. In 
the first place, the act of comparescence is enacted in 
such language as best suited the party of the captain. 
She appears herself more desirous of having her account 
approved of, than of collecting the sum. Then, in the 
numberless petitions of her own agent, this seems to 
have been the principal point of his requests. On the 
other hand, the protests of the captain, from the very 
first act, as to his readiness to exhibit the sum, pro- 
vided it be ascertained, are calculated to make the ex- 
penses bear on the poor woman. This is probably an 
explicit or instinctive combination of all the law-agents, 
assessors, and lawyers in the case, who generally en- 
deavor to stamp some weak point on the party who is 
more ready or able to pay, so as not to lose their fees 
by giving all right to the innocent.' My friend added, 
however, that he would call upon the captain-general 
himself, and have some conversation with him, and 
would then see me again. The uncommon circum- 
stance of a respectable lawyer appearing privately to 
demand attention to a case like this, produced some 
useful effect. The general ordered instant payment of 
the sum ; but what he could not interfere with, as he 
said, was the expenses^ which were far beyond the 
amount sued for ; so that, upon the whole, it was un- 
derstood and settled that poor Rosario should neither 
claim her bill nor pay any charges, and endeavor there- 
after to be as amiable and generous to the little set of 
menials of justice as she had been previously. 

" This little history is every day repeated in a thou- 
sand different shapes ; and surely no one who sees 
occasionally in the city of Havana the appearance of 
comfort and civilization, the pompous records of re- 
forms, and the annual speeches of the judicial courts, 
glowing with equitable principles of justice and human- 
ity, could imagine that the society which seems thus 



136 CUBA AND 

prosperous and lofty is devoured by a cancer so de- 
structive to their fortunes, ease, and repose. Speaking 
on this subject, the Revista de Espana once expressed 
itself thus ; " Were you to withdraw the brilliant mask 
which hides the state of the country, a lacerated and 
deformed skeleton would present itself to our sight. 
* * * Other evils, other abuses, may chiefly fall on 
interests and classes better able to support them ; but 
those coming from the administration of justice, prey 
upon every class and condition in life, impairing and 
absolutely ruining the most indigent and helpless." 



THE CUBANS. 187 



CHAPTER V. 

Visit to the Country Residence of a wealthy Marquis. — Singular Oc- 
casion of it. — The Marquis and his Creditors. — The Spanish Judge 
and the Advocate. — The Marchioness and her Guests. — Her Chil- 
dren. — Mode of bringing up a Family. — Easy way of dealing with 
stubborn Creditors. — The unfortunate Potrerero. — Early Dawn in 
Cuba. — The Morning and Evening. — Tacon's Opera House. — In- 
solence of the Soldiers. — Anecdotes. — Beauty of the young Cu- 
banese. — The married Women. — Their Habits and Customs. — 
Shopping. — Exercise in the Volante. — Children. — The lower 
Classes. — The Guagiro. — His Courtship. — Obsolete Customs. — 
The hours of the Oracion. — Conclusion. 

The epistolary style is continued in the present chap- 
ter in order to present more vividly the social habits 
and customs of the native Cubans. In this way many 
things can be introduced and described of which no 
proper conception can in any other manner be afforded. 
The following, then, may be considered as taken from 
an unpublished letter : 

You desire me to describe the social condition of the 
Cubans, and as the request is coupled with an intima- 
tion that this must be done forthwith, I have con- 
cluded, under the urgent necessity of the case, to 
throw aside forms, preambles, and introductory re- 
marks, and report quite abruptly the result of an in- 
vitation I had lately to the country residence of a 
wealthy marquis. At one of the stations of the rail- 
road we found several empty volantes, with their 
mounted drivers and gaudy liveries in attendance for 
our party. The marquis was a man of easy and amia- 
ble manners, though not particularly clever in conver- 
sation. He seemed to attend on his friends as if by 
starts, and unconsciously relapsed into an habitual 



138 CUBA AND 

revery. His dress, of clean, colored linen, constituted 
the regular traveling habit of a Cuban gentleman. In 
singular contrast with this, but one quite peculiar 
to the country, he wore an immense diamond-pin at 
his breast. This little insignia might, in the pres- 
ent day, when railroads are depriving tourists of their 
descriptions of solitary and dangerous scenes and local- 
ities, be a substitute for the ornamented uniform, 
which, with the honors of an army officer, not long ago 
was regularly purchased by men of rank, to secure to 
them the right of traveling unmolested by petty officers 
of justice, or fine- gatherers ^ as they may well be 
named. But to return to my company. The mar- 
chioness, a fine-looking woman, of about fifty, wore 
a dress of the thinnest cambric ; her still small and 
pretty feet were encased in delicate satin slippers ; 
while a bonnet of transparent texture, more appropri- 
ately trimmed for an opera-box than suited to the 
heavy red dust of the Cuban roads, completed her 
traveling attire. She seemed all activity ; to the sev- 
eral gentlemen who formed our party she had continu- 
ally something to say ; she gave her orders to the driv- 
ers, determined where we were to have breakfast, or- 
dered the several stoppages, and even seemed to whis- 
per now and then to her docile husband what was best 
for him to say or to do. I observed that her atten- 
tions were especially divided between two rather re- 
markable members of our party, with whom she had, 
alternately, long conversations, which were at times very 
private. One of these persons was a native of Castile, 
in Old Spain, a man of about forty, though from his 
rather bulky figure, one would have judged him to be 
considerably older. He appeared to be fully impressed 
with his own dignity — when he spoke, he seemed to 
listen to his own remarks, which he could do to per- 
fection, as no one presumed to interrupt him, while all 
heard him with deep attention. His complexion was 
dark, his eye& jet black, and in his speech, the clear 



THE CUBANS. 13© 

Castilian pronunciation, in which even the commonest 
of that province appear to delight, was evident to the 
most careless ear. With all the deference paid to this 
important guest, whose attire, with the exception of a 
rather shabby discolored ribbon in the button-hole, was 
similar to that of the other guests, he did not always 
retain the manner of one quite at ease ; on the con- 
trary, it seemed as if it were more natural for him to 
court those by whom he was surrounded, than to receive 
their homage. I soon ascertained that he was one of 
the judges recently sent from Spain, elevated to the 
office, though ignorant of the country, and its habits and 
usages, from his fortunate relation to members of the 
cabinet or Cortes. The other gentleman engrossing the 
attention of the lady marchioness, was a young lawyer, 
full of activity, and with the money-making spirit of a 
true Catalonian; his particular influence with courts 
of justice, was owing to his Spanish birth, and was the 
origin of his great practice and profits in the profession. 
"" Una flor," said he, picking a flower and presenting 
it to the marchioness, " a flower that will appear as 
beautiful on you, as your bountiful gifts will in my 
purse." I was struck with, and have since remember- 
ed, this remark, which in its very insipidity and coarse 
allusion, gave an idea of the aping, at what is gallant 
and graceful in the Spanish gentleman, on the part of 
the upstarts of the present military administration in 
Spain ; and at the risk of being charged with digress- 
ing, I cannot resist the inquiry, whether the Spanish 
gentleman of days gone by, is a character now altogether 
historical 1 The intermixture in the best society, for 
the last half century, of men risen through party influ- 
ence, especially from the Carlist ranks — the utter anni- 
hilation of that faith in his church which gave a serious 
cast to the natural dignity of the native Spaniard — the 
mercenary motives which from the throne have pene- 
trated down to the humblest cottages — every thing has 
conspired to efface the simple but haughty and noble- 



140 CUBA AND 

minded Spanish gentleman, both from the Peninsular 
and from Cuban society. Let me, however, be just ; 
the class does exist, and Spain may yet boast of the 
distinguished " caballeros," whose manners may have 
become even too polished to reflect the plain Castilian 
courtesy, but whose truthfulness and uprightness of 
character would excite the envy of more advanced na- 
tions. I could point out as a specimen, Don Miguel 
Rodriguez Ferrer, whose recent visit to Cuba, apparently 
to report the physical condition and historical reminis- 
cences of the island, produced the most able and impres- 
sive political sketches, which, privately communicated to 
the court as they were, would have brought about, under 
an enlightened administration, immediate reforms and 
concessions. But so great is the habit of acting the part 
of conquerors, which has become almost intuitive in the 
old Spaniards, that even Rodriguez Ferrer manifested a 
tinge of haughty arrogance while in America, of which, 
as a native of Spain, he could hardly divest himself. 

To a foreigner, the object of the party assembled at 
the estate " Santa Gertrudis," which I had accident- 
ally joined, would have appeared incongruous and ex- 
traordinary. The Marquis of Santa Gertrudis, through 
the reckless extravagance of his wife, had become en- 
tangled in his affairs ; and were it the practice for men 
of wealth to pay off their debts at once, he would very 
likely have become a bankrupt. This, however, is not 
the custom in Cuba ; but such matters are managed on 
this wise.* The creditors are assembled ; yearly in- 
stallments are agreed upon ; the extravagant living of 
the noble family is considered a necessary expenditure, 
and the majority, usually made up of family or ficti- 
tious creditors, force the rebellious claimants to lay 
down their arms, and enter into private compromises. 
The effect of this course is to set the family at ease ; 
the lady returns to her habits of luxury ; the sons to 
their dissipation ; the daughters to their careless waste 

* See Appendix. 



THE CUBANS. 141: 

of finery ; while they spend their time in love-sick fan- 
cies ; the poor relations and parasite friends to their 
customary dependence on the old trunk, raised from the 
ground for a few more years ; and the head of the fam- 
ily to fresh undertakings of new estates. And all this 
is carried out with as much indifference as if, in place 
of an extorted compromise from clamorous creditors, 
payment in full of every debt had been promptly made. 
The lady who, on the occasion, had the manage- 
ment of this important domestic matter, was the daugh- 
ter of the Count of M . She belonged to what 

may be called the staunch nobility. Nature, and 
the teachings of her noble-minded parents, had made 
her a modest and virtuous woman. But the habits of 
her new home, and the circle surrounding her, were 
calculated to impair her superior qualities. The uni- 
versal custom of the country, rather than indolence, in- 
fluenced her, from the very first years of her married 
life, to give into the hands of her slaves the nursing 
and early training of her children. The recollections 
of her father's home now and then directed her atten- 
tion to books and foreign literature. But she found 
none to sympathize in such tastes ; the ball-room, the 
" sociedades," the operas, her visits, the tedious and 
loquacious shoppings, the " paseo," the correspondence 
which she found it necessary to maintain with the coun- 
try-estate clerks, and, what is more than all calculated 
to destroy the freshness of modesty and beauty, the 
gambling-table, to which she gradually became habitu- 
ated, not only deprived her of time for more intellectual 
and domestic enjoyments, but destroyed by degrees her 
original taste for them. " Mamma," said her son, a 
boy of fourteen, dressed like a small gentleman, and 
with all the nonchalance and airs of a gallant, " I don't 
know how you or papa are arranging your business with 
the creditors, but you must recollect that my own pri- 
vate property, now in your hands, must be so left that 
I may have all the necessary resources for living, and 



142 CUBA AND 

for my customary pleasures ; and as to my carriage, I 
cannot give it up on any consideration, for there is not 
one of my cousins who is without this convenience." 
He went on at this rate, until the poor mother, con- 
scious that she was reaping the fruits of her own errors 
and neglect, sighed in despondency. I must add, with 
pain, that this specimen of filial coldness and depravity 
is by no means the exception ; the too fond and over- 
indulgent mothers, who are themselves the direct cause 
of such examples, are far more to be pitied than con- 
demned. What teaching or light have they enjoyed to 
guide them in their incipient path when starting in lifel 
The magistrate is corrupt, and his misconduct is the 
subject of every-day anecdotes and scandal ; the minis- 
ter of the gospel teaches neither by example nor from 
the pulpit ; the husband has no idea of performing what 
would elsewhere be considered the most ordinary duties ; 
the society is frivolous ; books are looked upon with 
aversion ; the press is an instrument of oppression ; and 
the mainspring of civilization and civil liberty, faith 
in Christ, is unknown. 

In what able manner the marchioness succeeded in 
exciting the energy of her lawyer, by the offer of ample 
reward, what secret understanding went on between 
him and the unintellectual Castilian judge, how each 
creditor was coaxed or frightened into acquiescence, I 
cannot say. I will only add, that some of them ob- 
tained favorable arrangements through the cunning ar- 
guments of the judge, which were the more ludicrous 
from contrast with his reasonings with other creditors, 
whom it was his policy to discourage in their claims. 
It was painful to see how poor neighbors had to yield 
to these influences out of utter incapacity to counteract 
such disgraceful combinations. Among the company 
of creditors, I was much amused with the appearance 
of a potrerero (cattle grazier), who was particularly ur- 
gent on the occasion. The fact is, the daughters of the 
potrerero, whenever they appear in public, dress most 



THE CUBANS. 143 

extravagantly, quite after the style of the wealthiest 
ladies of the island. To satisfy this thirst after finery 
of the female portion of his household, the potrerero has 
invariably to contract debts for the paying of which the 
earnings of the year are hardly sufficient. What won- 
der, then, that the poor cattle grazier urged his claim 
with a desperate but unavailing earnestness. He, with 
the other persevering creditors, were overruled, and the 
marquis was thereupon left to his new projects, his wife 
to her accustomed routine of folly and of fashion, the 
sons to their pleasures, and the daughters to the enjoy- 
ment of new dresses, new finery, and new fancies. 
Have I not drawn a revolting picture 1 Alas ! it is 
absolutely a true one. 

TP -TT Tp tP -75* ' tP TP 

I had intended before this to allude to the climate 
and atmosphere of this enchanting island. It is quite 
impossible, however, to give to one who has never en- 
joyed it, an idea of the delicious fragrance of the early 
dawn. The exquisite freshness of the morning, the 
soft, cool breeze of evening, when the very soul is re- 
freshed and purified, and the pulse of life beats fuller 
and clearer, produces a sensation to be enjoyed only, 
but never to be described to those living in the for- 
bidding north. An intense gratitude to the Giver 
of all these beauties fills the heart of the stranger, 
and the human voice rings through the early morn- 
ing air with such a clear freshness, that one would fancy 
the inhabitants would instinctively raise their first notes 
in thanksgiving or hymns of praise ; but alas ! how 
does the heart of the good man thrill with anguish, as 
he sees the rich beauties of this lovely island perverted 
to the wicked uses of more wicked men. The first 
beams of its glorious sun light upon the wearied souls 
of worn-out and exhausted slaves, and serve but to 
render more visible the degrading bondage of their mas- 
ters ; while too often the clear light of the heavenly 
moon reveals sights of infamy and vice which make the 



144 CUBA AND 

soul shudder. One feels at times almost afraid to be 
happy in a country upon which the judgment of God 
seems to have fallen in wrath. The absence of all re- 
finement, religion, education — in fact, of decency — 
among the lower classes, is a contemplation painful 
enough to mar all enjoyment of society in Cuba. The 
invariably idiotic faces of the women and children make 
the heart ache ; for an humbly pious or modest young 
face, I have never seen among the poor. What is not 
vice or bold recklessness, is generally stupidity or sickly 
indifference. I do not think this is prejudice or exagge- 
ration ; I am sure it is not ; for I love Cuba, I pity the 
poor oppressed Cubans, and I look with loathing upon 
that infamous government which has systematically de- 
stroyed all moral and social good among them. When 
I see the half-naked women — the all-naked children — 
the desperately bad (when not too lazy) men — I look 
away from these to their mother-country, and feel my 
heart stirred, in spite of me, with a desire of revenge. 
As these and similar thoughts were disturbing my spirit 
this morning, the elegant-looking and lordly young Bish- 
op of Havana, in his gorgeous robes and costly jewels, 
swept past me from the altar, amidst a train of ignorant 
and servile priests. Not one gleam of piety or grace 
could be discerned in his vain, worldly countenance — 
not one single mark or sign to denote him a follower of 
the meek and lowly Jesus. I feel a wonder that there 
are none around whose hearts do not burst forth into 
audible expressions of disgust ; I marvel that Spain 
and her infamous government have one voice left to 
defend them in Cuba. 

j| A stranger in this island will be vividly impressed 
1^1 the contrast between the insolent hauteur of the 
Spanish official, and the cringing deference of the pros- 
trate Cuban. The commonest Spanish soldier assumes 
the impertinent swagger of his superior, as a Creole 
passes the point of his bayonet, while just as surely his 
cowardly eye falls before the independent glance of an 



THE CUBANS. 145' 

American citizen. I remember to have been struck 
with an illustration of this, upon going one night into 
the beautiful opera-house of Tacon, in Havana, where 
guards of soldiers and dragoons are regularly stationed, 
as it appeared to me, for no better purpose than to annoy 
ladies, by the freedom of their gaze and their half- whis- 
pered insults. A young man, while hastily making way 
for half a dozen beautifully dressed girls with their fat 
mammas, placed himself too near this imposing array of 
military, and within forbidden limits. The gentleman- 
ly quiet of his manner deceived the officer on guard 
into the belief that he was " only a Creole," and he 
arrogantly, with lowered bayonet, ordered him aside. 
" Come, come, my famous soldier," was the reply, ^'if I 
have done wrong by standing here, inform me of it with 
respect ; I am a gentleman and an Englishman, not one 
of your poor Cubans." I turned to observe the effect 
of this reproof, which to my surprise was evidenced by 
an humble salute, and a courteous wave of the gold- 
laced hand jn the direction to be taken by the young 
EnglishmanTT 

Now tha£^ are here, let us enter the opera-house, 
where we may, indeed, be surprised to see no external 
evidence of all this degrading tyranny. Elegantly 
dressed and polished men crowd the boxes and seats ; 
while the beautiful repose of countenance and figure, 
characteristic of the ladies, are expressive of dignity and 
content, to say the least. Their noble outline of fea- 
ture appears to great advantage in the retired light of 
an opera-box, while their full busts and rounded arms, 
contrast finely with the richly plaited, dark hair and 
simple white dress, rarely ornamented by more than 
a fall of soft lace or a natural flower ; and one is 
tempted to overlook the absence of intelligence and 
brightness in those magnificent eyes, in consideration 
of their almost bewildering depth and softness. The 
vivacity of the Spanish lady is lost in the Creole ; but 
in its stead, we find a charming gentleness very pleas- 
7 



146 CUBA AND 

ing, and an amiability of manner absolutely captivating 
to the stranger. One dare not, however, raise the eye 
above the third tier of boxes, for there again are only 
met the depraved countenances and loose manners of 
the lower classes, unrestrained by either good taste or 
shame. 

The outward decorum of the better and upper 
classes may be, to a great extent, only in appearance, 
as is often asserted by prejudiced foreigners, for it is 
hard to understand how the fresh cheek of a young girl 
can retain its ordinary color, as I have often witnessed 
in the public paseo of Havana, under the bold and free 
— I may not hesitate to say licentious — gaze of the 
young men assembled to render this tribute to their too 
generously exposed charms. Indeed, there seems little 
reluctance to be thus admired, for no change in the 
expression, no falling of the long and lovely blade eye- 
lash, ever indicates a shrinking from it. With all 
^ this, in no part of the world has it been my fortune to 
^ see more devoted wives and mothers than in Cuba. 
There are few, indeed, who could teach their sons to 
become great men ; but their deep, abiding love, un- 
tiring care and devotion, many a northern mother who 
never allows a new publication to escape her, and who 
laments in elegant English the ignorance of the Cuban 
ladies, may, with advantage to her own nursery, emu- 
late. Literally speaking, however, there are no chil- 
dren in Cuba : men and women, they descend from 
their nurses' arms* Little girls of three years old are 
dressed in long dresses made in the extreme of fashion ; 
artificial flowers and jewels are quite common ; and the 
little debutantes sit gracefully opening and shutting 
their tiny fans with perfect incipient coquetry. Very 
funny little men, too, are manufactured at five or six 
years, after the complete toilette of a Parisian exqui- 
site, not omitting diamond-pins and a wonderful variety 
of cravats and canes. 

We hear a great deal of Cuba as the land of gal- 



THE CUBANS. 147 

lantry and love. The former it may be, but for the lat- 
ter, the sentiment, or holiness, which should hallow the 
union of hearts, is scarcely understood ; the wives too 
frequently degenerate into mere household drudges, 
scolding their servants and petting their children all 
day, and sitting at night, when the former are quiet and 
the latter asleep, in their luxurious butaque or easy 
chair to play with their fans, the use of which is often 
the only grace left to them. A Creole girl before mar- 
riage is a beautiful object, graceful, gentle, and loving ; 
but a Creole woman after forty is very generally quite 
the reverse. The ravages of time are never concealed ; 
gray hairs are not considered worth adorning, and old 
age is made disgusting. Instead of the '' nice old la- 
dies" and elegant matrons of our American homes, we 
too often find in Cuba only fat scolds with voices loud 
enough to frighten a regiment of men into submission, 
and faces so brown, so wrinkled, and so ugly, and with 
so evident an absence of all feminine softness, that we 
listen in wonder when we are told that they have been 
the beauties of their day.pTDelicacy of habit, and even 
of feeling, are in my opinion smothered in their infancy 
by the constant association with negroes ; the loud, 
coarse laugh and low jests, they imbibe with their first 
milk from the same source ; the habit of command and 
arrogance, also acquired in their childhood, appears in 
after life to destroy all tenderness of manner, and in- 
crease that harshness of voice so universally remarked 
upon by foreigners and ascribed entirely to the effect 
of climate. >* 

The dailyme of a Cuban lady is monotonous in the 
extreme. It is utterly devoid of intelligent exercise 
of mind or body, a,nd as a natural consequence both 
deteriorate sadly. A host of nervous diseases attest 
the truth of this. Early rising is a virtue common to 
all ranks ; but the manner in which they contrive to 
kill time without reading, household occupations, or, 
in fact, any employment except, perhaps, a little em- 



148 CUBA AND 

broidery, is indeed a mystery. Shopping, which is 
generally confined to the morning, is, to be sure, a 
great resource ; hours are consumed in passing from 
one shop to another, bargaining for goods, and chatting 
with the very polite, but extremely familiar shopkeep- 
ers, quite elegant-looking men, who do not hesitate to 
address ladies by their Christian name, and to pay 
them most elaborate compliments upon their beauty 
and grace. Still, I can scarce find fault with this, 
there is so much amiability of manner, such an entire 
absence of intention to offend, so much cheerful alac- 
rity in complying with every whim of a lady, and, 
above all, such an exhaustless, untiring patience in 
running back and forth from the volante to the coun- 
ter, that one finds it quite natural to smile at the flat- 
tery, and return, at parting, the salutation "a los pies 
de usted, senora," an " adios" with gracious good humor. 
Many a foreign lady has been deluded by this exqui- 
site politeness into the belief that she has made a very 
great bargain ; and one which " none but so charming 
an Americana as herself could have made ;" in a fan, 
at fifty dollars, which a Habanera would have passed 
an hour in reducing to half the price. 

Eating fruit, and the routine of the bath while away 
many a morning and after-dinner. Happily, for the 
Cuban girls, the sun is ever shining, the volante, with 
its easy motion, ever ready ; the negro maid, living 
only to plait and pomatum their beautiful hair, and 
the good mamma patiently waiting to escort them to 
the public drives, or "paseos." Operas, and visits 
of interminable length, pass off the evening, and by 
ten all are again at home, the massive house-door 
turns on its hinges, the lazy porter goes to sleep, and 
the young maiden to dream of the few whispered words 
she may perchance have caught from some one of her 
admirers. I reject all the scandalous accounts given 
by most foreigners here, of the immorality existing 
among the better classes. I have seen no little of 



THE CUBANS. 149' 

good society in Havana and the surrounding cities, and 
within my personal observation have witnessed the 
highest degree of womanly devotion and virtue ; the 
reverse I have very rarely seen pass without severe 
censure. The surveillance exercised over women pos - 
sessing the least pretensions to youth or good looks, is 
the argument generally made use of against them. In 
Spain, where much more freedom exists, the wives and 
daughters are less pure. I would venture the asser- 
tion of an impartial and quick observer, that entire 
fidelity and high domestic virtue exist among the wo- 
men of Cuba, especially when one considers that the 
many irksome restraints imposed upon them, with the 
lack of mental resources, are calculated to produce 
indifference, or a mischievous frivolity of character, 
even where the neglect of the husband does not induce 
a reckless despair. Among the lower classes, as I 
have before mentioned, this is all very different, and 
the very meaning of the word virtue is lost. This dis- 
grace, with countless others, Cuba now flings back 
with reproaches upon the mother-country, whose rep- 
resentative. General O'Donnell, dared even to sup- 
press the incipient organization of Sunday schools for 
the poor, lest, through the little children, a faint glim- 
mer of light might awaken their parents from the dark 
night of their ignorance and superstition. In towns 
and villages where, as in most civilized countries, one 
would expect to find some softening, at least, of the 
vices of the city, we see the people, young and old, 
sunk still lower in stupid ignorance and in an immor- 
ality of life too revolting for me to dwell upon. A lit- 
tle romance perhaps remains among the country lov- 
ers. The Guagiro, with his wild, dark eye, wonder- 
fully expressive gesture, and usually imperturbable 
self-possession, becomes ridiculously silent and shy in 
his courting. In a richly-worked shirt of fine linen, 
worn upon the outside as a sack ; a long, and often 
elegantly embroidered cambric sash-fastening to his 



150 CUBA AND 

side, the silver -handled sword, or "machete," silver 
spurs, and low slippers, he will sit for hours opposite his 
lady-love, only venturing now and then a word of re- 
proof, to be interpreted in affectionate playfulness, and 
to which she retorts in the same style ; yet, now and 
then, at a glance, and when unobserved, they do ven- 
ture to exchange some very tender word. But ges- 
tures, shrugging of the shoulders, little dashing airs of 
coquetry in the lady, and bashful approaches on the 
part of the gallant, fill up the measure of the wooing 
of the Cuban peasant. 

There are many customs in the island nearly obso- 
lete, which have had their origin in a most simple and 
true spirit of religion. One particularly struck me in 
a fine old Cuban family at Havana, the mother of whom 
would grace her position in any country. I paid her a 
visit at the hour of the " oracion," announced at sun- 
set by the convent bells throughout the city. In past 
years, as in Spain, at that moment every voice and oc- 
cupation was suspended, and every knee bent in silent 
prayer ; but now the only observance of it I have 
any where seen, was (in the family I have men- 
tioned) the quiet dropping in, one after another, of the 
children of the donna, to ask her blessing, and affec- 
tionately kiss her hand. The action in itself, though 
not intended to produce the least effect, was most 
touching, as she, placing her hand gracefully and feel- 
ingly upon each young head, replied, " Dios te haga 
bueno hijo" — God make you good, my child. Among 
the slaves in another family I have known the same 
custom observed, and I found it peculiarly touching to 
see a large, coarse African slightly bending his knee to 
his master and mistress to ask of them the evening 
blessing. This too would be asked for and received 
with a sincere and marked affection on both sides. 
The above, however, are instances which I am sorry to 
say now stand nearly alone. By degrees, religious ob- 
servances and true piety have given way to a careless 



THE CUBANS. 151 

indifference or an open disbelief ; and unless a change 
is speedily eifected in the general administration of the 
island, it will sink still lower in the scale of humanity. 
Heaven forbid that this should be. Is it not time that 
philanthropists every where should awake to the fearful 
condition of Cuba, and use every effort to free her 
from her present degrading bondage ? 



152 CUBA AND 



CHAPTER VI. 

State of Religion in Cuba. — Contrast with the same in former times. 
— The " Angelas." — f'lirtations carried on in the Churches. — Infi- 
delity universally prevalent. — Absence of all Religious Feeling in 
Families of every class. — No piety among the Priests. — Their dis- 
gusting Debaucheries and Excesses. — Horrible instances of this in 
the priest Don Felix del Pino. — Roman Catholicism. — Why many 
of the Cubans desire Annexation with the United States. — An ap- 
peal to the Christian philanthropist. 

Among the many reasons for sad reflection afforded by 
the present situation of the beautiful Queen of the 
Antilles, there is none so appalling as the low and 
wretched condition of religion. The seeds of infidelity 
which were so widely diffused through the world at the 
close of the last century, have been greatly checked 
within late years ; and the Christian observer now re- 
joices daily more and more at the general extension of 
the Gospel influence. But in unhappy Cuba those 
fatal seeds seem to have found a more propitious nur- 
ture under the influence of depressing and deterior- 
ating government ; and nowhere therefore is presented 
a more dark and distressing picture of unbelief, corrup- 
tion, and immorality. 

Twenty-five years ago, if one happened to be an in- 
mate of any respectable Cuban family, one would be 
sure to meet with religious practices and feelings which, 
even to a foreigner of a different creed, appeared cheer- 
ing and grateful. At the hour of twilight, a church 
bell rung through the city would create every where a 
sudden and simultaneous excitement. It was the 
''' Angelusy^^ and at its sound all persons, of all classes, 
would at once rise to say their evening prayers ; 
children and servants would, at its conclusion, ask a 



THE CUBANS. 153 ^ 

blessing from their parents or masters ; while every 
carriage and passenger would pause in the street, every 
•workman would suspend his toil, and a general mani- 
festation of religious reverence would be exhibited. 
In those days frequent sermons, from pious and elo- 
quent preachers, would awaken the congregations that 
filled the churches to the solemn truths connected with 
their spiritual welfare ; slaves and free blacks were 
instructed in the precepts of the Saviour, and the ser- 
vice of the temple was attended with devotion and 
decency. 

At the present day, in all the churches of Cuba, a 
brief mass, scandalously hurried through, and wit- 
nessed by a very small portion of the inhabitants, is 
all that attests the Sabbath of the Lord. And even 
this poor and meagre performance of the solemn ser- 
vices of the church whose creed bears sway in the 
island, by whom and how is it attended 1 By few 
others than those who resort to it as a public place of 
meeting, gayety, and flirtation. The ladies ply the 
telegraphic fan with the same airs of coquetry and 
playfulness as they may have done the evening before 
at the theatre, or as they will probably do the same 
evening at the opera. The young gentlemen attend 
at the doors for the interchange of glances with their 
fair friends, and perhaps for a glimpse of the pretty 
ankles ascending the steps of the volantes, in waiting. 
All seem intent on showing, by their smiles and their 
undisguised disrespect, that they are neither believers, 
nor ashamed of their unbelief. In the church itself, 
are no expounding — no reading, even of the Gospel — no 
visits of the pastors — no consolations carried to the 
dying — none of the charitable communities that abound 
in other countries, both Catholic and Protestant. 

Among the shopkeepers and artisans, is manifested 

the same utter disregard, not to say scorn, of the 

Christian Sabbath and the Christian faith ; for with 

wide-open doors and windows, and on the public street, 

7* 



154 CUBA AND 

they pursue, without even the affectation of a difference, 
the customary employments of the week in labor or 
traffic. 

But to explore further the moral results of the state 
of things thus imperfectly described, go to the aged 
head of a family, and behold him incapable of exercis- 
ing any influence over his own offspring, who have 
never been taught the divine mission of Christ ; to the 
neglected wife, who weeps over the cruel and mortify- 
ing treatment experienced from a depraved partner, 
and see her endeavoring to forget her griefs at public 
amusements, at cards, or elsewhere, ignorant of, be- 
cause never taught, the only balm that can restore 
peace to the most embittered soul ; to the injured hus- 
band, and there witness a similar hollow wretchedness 
of the heart, searching vainly for the relief he knows 
not how to search for aright ; or, what is more proba- 
ble, behold him plunged in the most deadly course of 
debauchery and vice. 

Leaving the cities, go to the country, and see the 
poor African, condemned to a toil not less incessant 
than severe — doomed to remain forever sunk in the im- 
bruted ignorance in which he was torn from his native 
and distant land — adoring a serpent — and encouraged 
to suicide, by the superstition which he believes, of the 
immediate return of his body to Africa after death. 
Few of them are baptized ; scarcely any married ; but 
they live together for the most part in the most disgust- 
ing habits of promiscuous intercourse ; while none are 
ever instructed in the consoling and humanizing truths 
of the Gospel. Look farther around to the white la- 
borer who commands the negro as overseer or mayoral^ 
or who tills a piece of land, or who moves along the 
road with his cart or draught horses ; look, too, at the 
countryman's family — and every where will be found 
the same indifference, and in general worse than indif- 
ference, the same sneering contempt of all that their 
ancestors revered as holy. 



THE CUBANS. 155 

The gentry also — the masters of estates — the officers 
of government — nay, the very priests themselves — ex- 
hibit the same painful picture of an all-pervading, all- 
demoralizing infidelity. The country curates msLy^ in 
general, and as a class, be set down as an example of 
all that is corrupt in immorality, all that is disgusting 
in low and brutal vice. Of the number there is one — 
Don Felix del Pino— too notorious, too illiterate, and 
too shameless to care for even this publication of his 
name, whose career presents so shocking and frightful 
an example of vice that I will mention a few of its 
characteristic traits, as a proof of what is possible in 
the island of Cuba at the present day. This man, 
who is the curate of an interior town, is in the habit of 
exacting $200 for an insignificant pretended attempt at 
the great ceremonies of a funeral. On one occasion, at 
a meeting of his low associates, he announced that he 
was preparing for a pleasure trip to the city of Havana, 
and in repty to their inquiries as to the pecuniary 
means on which he relied for that object, he simply 
answered, that a certain respectable old woman, whom 
he named, was on the eve of death, and that her 
funeral expenses would supply him the means. Having 
afterward ascertained that she was unexpectedly im- 
proving, he vowed that she should die, and hastened to 
her bedside, where, prostituting the rights of his sacred 
ministry, he labored to dissuade her from any hopes of 
recovery, and harassed her mind with such agonizing 
and terrible pictures, in such a tone, and with such 
evidently evil design, that the friends of the poor 
despairing suiferer felt compelled to interfere, and 
rescue her from his guilty hands. On another occasion 
he informed a couple who wished to marry, but whose 
family relation of consanguinity required a dispensation 
from Rome, that he could obtain the grant for that 
purpose at Havana. He therefore went to that city, 
and shortly afterward returned with the full license, as 
he pretended, to perform the marriage > to which, how- 



156 CUBA AND 

ever, he insisted on naming tlie attesting witnesses, or 
the godfather and godmother of the ceremony. He 
accordingly married the parties, and received six hun- 
dred dollars as his reward. When the couple, at a 
later day, discovered that no such authority could be 
procured at Havana, and that they had been made the 
victims of a foul deception, they called on him and were 
met by a cool denial of his having had any thing to do 
in the matter ; in support of which he exhibited his 
books, where he had carefully omitted to set down the 
case. He was, however, arrested for a time in con- 
sequence, but no more serious penalty ever ensued. 
His last act was one which, indeed, can hardly be 
credited, though its truth is beyond question. In a 
letter coarsely written, in the most obscene and re- 
volting language, to his brother in Havana, he expa- 
tiates on the violation of a young white female, for 
whom he had paid to her own father, and says that on 
the occasion of his first possession of her, he had or- 
dered the bells of his church to be rung ! The signa- 
ture of the letter he acknowledged to be his ; and the 
young girl, only thirteen years of age, was found at his 
house, and the truth of the case so fully proved by her 
testimony, and other corroborating evidences, as to 
cause the imprisonment of the father, and the suspen- 
sion of the priest from the ofiice so foully scandalized. 
Of course, it must not be understood that there are 
many priests in Cuba who have reached such a depth 
of corruption as is exhibited by this revolting and hid- 
eous instance ; but the general degradation of the clergy 
and the church, and the deep demoralization of the 
country where such a monster is not at once visited 
with signal punishment, must be sad indeed. This 
wretch may, on the contrary, be seen even now, though 
suspended from his parish cure, attending in his cleri- 
cal robes on the public ceremonies of the Church at 
Havana ! 

The responsibility of this dreadful state of things, 



THE CUBANS. IST * 

in reference to the religious and moral condition of the 
island of Cuba, should not be considered as resting 
upon the Romish Church or creed. It would be illib- 
eral indeed to carry to so unjust a length those preju- 
dices of Protestantism which are doubtless founded in 
reason, and which cannot but be stimulated to a great 
degree at the exhibition of Roman Catholicism in Cuba. 
Yet in the United States no one can deny that it is a 
very different institution, both in its spirit and its prac- 
tice, from that which is presented to the eye of the 
most superficial observer in Cuba. The Church prop- 
er is not the responsible cause, but the corrupt political 
government which has invaded its domain, paralyzed all 
its good energies, corrupted its entire organization, and 
poisoned its very fountains of spiritual purity. The 
central military despotism, in the hands of the Spanish 
officials, clustered in and about the palace of the cap- 
tain-general, may be said to have absorbed to itself the 
Church, with every other good institution possessed by 
the island in its better days. Its influence has been 
destroyed, its revenues and property, together with all 
the patronage of ecclesiatical appointments, appropriat- 
ed by the government. The nominations to all religious 
offices are made, directly or indirectly, hy the creatures 
of the government, and given, directly or indirectly, to 
the creatures of the government. The very members 
of the chapter of the cathedral at Havana are now 
named at Madrid, in disregard of the canonical propo- 
sals from the board according to law. Day after day 
and year after year have been suffered to pass without 
an appointment to fill the long vacant bishopric of 
Havana, and thirty years have elapsed since the sacra- 
ment of confirmation, as it is termed by the Roman 
Catholics, has been administered in the several dis- 
tricts of the diocese, which should be regularly visited 
once a year. 

In short, the principal reason given by the serious 
and reflecting Cubans for desiring annexation to the 



158 CUBA AND 

United States, is derived from the present condition of 
religious and moral degradation of the island. It only 
requires, say they, the fresh air of liberty and light of 
free truth to be let in upon it, to secure that reform 
and regeneration which should be the object of the hope 
and desire of every Christian observer. With annexa- 
tion to the United States, will come the free Bible, the 
free Pulpit, and the free Press ; the healthful and 
stimulating influence of Protestant competition in the 
labors of the spiritual harvest ; the infusion of a new 
spirit, a renovated vitality, into the moral being of the 
population of Cuba, now corrupt with disease and pal- 
sied well nigh beyond recovery. Surely the Roman 
Catholic clergy and community of the United States 
cannot but unite in the desire, which must be to 
Protestants an anxious one, to witness the termination 
of this miserable and scandalous condition of a neighbor- 
ing community — a community with which this country 
is already connected by so many ties of interest and 
intercourse, and which, all know and feel, must at no 
very distant day become an integral portion of it. 
Ought not, then, the Roman Catholic clergy of the 
United States, alive to the dignity attached to their 
ministry in America, to speak out in the name of those 
of their brethren who, by the corrupt and corrupting 
interference of civil power, have become careless of the 
holy cause which they do not even profess to sustain ? 
Ought not the Pope, whose course of reform brings back 
the Catholic Church to the earlier period of her career, 
when she was the natural ally of the poor and the 
oppressed, to be made to know that there is a portion 
of his wide-spread flock, purporting to obey and follow 
his Christian standard, who are yet sunk deep in the 
abyss of infidelity and vice 1 When in that beautiful 
island, so bountifully favored by God, the family circle 
shall once more be comforted by the cheering peace of 
Christianity — when the master shall learn to cherish a 
Christian care for the slave who is now treated by him 



THE CUBANS. 159 

as a brute beast of burden and labor — and when the 
latter shall be rescued by Christian instruction from 
the superstitions and practices of his present state of 
heathen destitution, and taught the precious lesson of 
Christian hope for the future, and Christian comfort in 
the sad present, then what grateful and fervent hymns 
of praise shall arise from hearts now ignorant of their 
own immortal nature and destiny, mingled with prayers 
in which will not be forgotten the names of all such as 
shall now bestow on them one look of sympathy, and 
extend a helping hand to bring them out of their pres- 
ent bondage. 



160 CUBA AND 



CHAPTER VII. 

Public Education. — Attempts to falsify Statements, — Official Items 
from the Census of 1841. — Schools pillaged by the Treasury. — 
Saco's Parallel between the Spanish and British Colonies. — De- 
gradation and Ignorance in the Country Regions. — Frightful Pic- 
tures of Vice. 

The organs of tlie Spanish administration may boast 
of progress in the island of Cuba, and endeavor to 
hide the deficiencies of public education by tedious and 
sophistical reasoning. Of late this has been attempted 
with an earnestness which bore evidence on its face of a 
conscious desire to produce an untrue impression. But 
why not silence, in the face of the world, the com- 
plaints of the Cubans with statistical numbers, and 
the report of facts which come naturally within their 
reach '? It is true that the census has not been taken, 
or at least published, since 1841 ; but whose fault is 
if? It is also true that the committees lately ap- 
pointed by the government, are ignorant and lukewarm 
— whose fault'? It is also a fact that the officials 
authorized for the purpose, are not furnished with 
adequate supplies to carry out the object of dif- 
fusing knowledge among the poor; but again, whose 
fault? 

The condition of education in the island is here ex- 
hibited by appealing to the official items. It must at 
the same time be borne in mind that an intimate 
knowledge of the country and people, would bring to 
light many facts of daily occurrence, which, with the 
open immorality of the multitude, and the ignorance 
stamped upon their countenances, must strengthen the 



THE CUBANS. 161 * 

conviction that however erroneous these official items 
may be, a correction of them would present a still 
more revolting picture. i. . 

The census of 1841 gives the following results as ^ 
regards the free and slave population : 

W'liite inhabitants 418,291 

Free mulattoes 88,054 

Free black 64,784 

Totalfree 571,129 

Mulatto slaves 10,974 

Black slaves 425,521* 

Total slaves 436,495 

Ti'ansient population *. 38,000 

1,045,624 

The number of schools, according to the most 
recent and certainly the most favorable accounts, 
amounted to 



Of white male children 129 

" " female '» 79 

Of colored male " 6 

" " female " 8 / 

In all 222 / 

Those receiving instruction in them were \ 

White boys 6025 

" girls 2417 

Colored boys 460 

" girls i 180 

From this data, it results that through the whole isl- 
and 222 schools existed, a,nd that 9082 free children, 
of all classes, were instructed in them. Of this num- 

* There is little doubt that this number should be augmented by 
one third to make it correct. 



/ 



162 CUBA AND 

ber, it is all-important to observe that 5325 paid their 
schools, and that 3757 was the pitiful number under 
gratuitous tuition. Of the latter, 540 were supported 
by the branches of the once comparatively flourishing 
" Sociedad Patriotica," whose resources were derived 
from personal subscription of the members or voluntary 
taxation of the citizens ; 2111 by local subscriptions or 
taxes ; and 1106 gratuitously taught by the professors, 
through the suggestions of the society, or other func- 
tionaries, whose request might almost be considered as 
actual command. 

The census also shows the number of free children 
between the ages of five and fifteen, to be 99,599 ; of 
whom, as before stated, 9082 are only educated, and 
that chiefly by private means and efforts. Scarcely ten 
per cent, of those requiring instruction receive it, four 
per cent, of whom by public contributions, and not any 
by appropriations from the general treasury. On the 
contrary, so far from receiving aid from, the treasury, 
the schools have been pillaged by it ; for when the cus- 
tom-houses have taken charge of collecting the local 
taxes established for public instruction, ten per cent, 
commission has been deducted for the service, and large 
sums imposed on commerce and trade for this object, 
have been, and are to this day, withheld and unaccount- 
ed for by the treasury. When the enormous amount 
of Cuban taxation, as explained in another part of this 
volume, is considered, who can restrain his indignation 
that with at least twenty-two millions of dollars of im- 
posts — an equivalent to $38 77cts. to each free soul — 
the first duty of a civilized government should be so 
dishonorably neglected. 

By referring to the above items, and those found in 
Mr. Saco's " Parallel between the Spanish and British 
Colonies," the following discouraging comparison is 
drawn : 



THE CUBANS. 



163 



Number of children educated in propor- 
tion to the whole free population. 

In the Bahama Islands 1831 1 to eveiy 16 

St. Vincent's 1830 1 " 19 

Jamaica 1827 1 " 18 

Antigua 1830 „ 1 " 5 

St. Christopher's* ' 1 " 11 

Lower Canada 1832 1 " ] 2 

Nova Scotia 1832 ] " 10 

Prince Edward's 1832 ] " 14 

Terra Nova 1834 1 « 8 

Mauritius 1 " 11 

Presidency of Madras . . 1834 1 " 5 

And the island of Cuba 1 " 63 



By withdrawing from the Patriotic Society, estab- 
lished under the most favorable auspices, first, its 
very name, that the word patriotic might be erased 
from the colonial vocabulary ; then, the care of watch- 
ing over, and directing public education ; and, lastly, 
the resources voted by the citizens from the origin of 
the corps — the most sacred cause, one always com- 
manding the noble excitement and enthusiasm of phi- 
lanthropy, has been placed in the sordid and debased 
hands of the officials of a venal and corrupt adminis- 
tration. Were this the sole grievance inflicted on 
Cuba, by Spanish despotism, no greater motive could 
inspire the bold cry of her indignant sons against tyr- 
anny so oppressive. 

Let not the traveler, from whatever land he may 
have approached that island, even though he be a na- 
tive of the beautiful Spanish peninsula, discredit the 
sad truths which are here recorded. But should the 
enormity of the evil induce a momentary doubt of its 
existence, let him. visit the comfortless home of the 
village poor, and there witness the most convincing 
proof of what is here affirmed. He Avill find the vil- 
lager, like all his humble associates, continually called 
to do public duty, for which not even thanks are ex- 



* There is a slight inaccuracy regarding this island. 



164 CUBA AND 

pected; -vrhile there is no individual service he de- 
mands of society for which he is not made to pay- 
dearly. His children, in the mean time, wander 
around amidst vice and filth; both parent and child 
exhibiting a benighted ignorance which is absolutely 
unparalleled. Not a feeling calculated to ennoble his 
nature, finds a place in the heart ; vice, in no instance, 
is regarded with aversion, for its deformity is not even 
perceived. Alas, for the community affording pictures 
of human degradation so revolting. And what shall 
be said of a government on which the awful responsi- 
bility rests of causing, of promoting, and of perpetuat- 
ing so much moral hideousness and desolation ! 



THE CUBANS. 165 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Cuban Grievances. — Personal Liberty. — Personal Security. — The 
Right of Property. — Instances of exercise of despotic Power. — 
Senor Saco. — Number deported and banished by Tacon. — The 
same System continued. — Taxation in Cuba. — Details. — Summary 
of Grievances, 

Throughout the preceding chapters continued allu- 
sion has been made to the wrongs and grievances 
which the Cubans are forced to endure, and the de- 
spotic sway with which the island is governed. It is 
proposed, in the present chapter, to enter more in de- 
tail upon these wrongs and grievances, that the world 
may judge between the island and her rulers. This is 
a subject that can no longer be shirked by Spain. 
Either Cuba has a right to redress, or she has not ; 
and that question cannot properly be settled by the 
voice of mankind, without a fair investigation of the 
causes of complaint. 

In the Declaration of Independence of the United 
States of America, the right of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness, is claimed for all men. A less 
rhetorical, but a more definite, proposition is laid 
down by the great English commentator, in his divi- 
sion of rights, into the right of personal liberty — the 
right of personal security — and the right of property. 
The Cubans are deprived of all these. 

The liberty of the person is constantly violated, and 
often with no other warrant than the arbitrary order of 
the meanest official, and from which no redress can be 
obtained, except by means of heavy bribes. 

During and since the time of Tacon, the seizure and 
immediate deportation of persons of respectability and 
distinction, were, and have been, of common occurrence, 



166 CUBA AND 

and this without a hearing of the party accused, and 
without granting any opportunity for defence. 

Individuals, for the slightest possible causes of of- 
fence — often, indeed, without any cause whatever — are 
seized and banished from the island, or, what is still 
worse, are incarcerated in loathsome prisons. 

One of the most flagrant acts of despotism was the 
deportation, by Tacon, of Senor Saco, a man univer- 
sally known and esteemed in the island for his high 
character and unblemished reputation, for his benevo- 
lence and philanthropy, and for his attachments to Cu- 
ban interests. All these, however, were of no avail 
against the tyrannical exercise of arbitrary power. 

Within a period of little more than eighteen months, 
about 200 persons were deported, and about 700 ban- 
ished for life, from the island by Tacon. These acts 
of despotism are continued, with more or less frequen- 
cy, to the present time. 

Innumerable instances might be named to sustain an 
assertion which no one will venture to contradict. 

So far from affording personal security to the Cuban, 
the government has taken every method to endanger it, 
under the pretence that it is necessary to keep the na- 
tive inhabitants in a state of constant apprehension in 
order to insure their continued allegiance. To this 
end, every kind of judicial enormit}^ prevails, and every 
description of imposition is practiced upon the helpless 
Creole. If he commits a wrong he is punished with- 
out an opportunity of being heard in his own defence, 
or, what is the same thing, he is tried before a preju- 
diced tribunal. If he has suffered an injury, he finds 
the means of redress so tedious that endurance is pref- 
erable to the formidable task of obtaining justice. 
There is but one means of avoiding persecution — but 
one way of escape when persecuted — but one method 
to obtain justice when seeking ordinary redress. It is 
by bribery. Gold will open prison doors, procure dis- 
pensation for falsely imputed crimes, obtain a tardy 



THE CUBANS. 167 

decree of long-sought justice. Thus personal security- 
is only to be enjoyed at the expense of the right of 
property, which brings the third di\ision of rights to 
be specially considered. 

The plan of robbery and plunder — it can be called 
by no milder name — has been reduced to so complete a 
system, and that system has been brought to such a 
state of perfection, that it will be more satisfactory to 
undertake the subject in its details. 

Without enlarging upon the difficulty of obtaining 
legal remedies, and the insecurity attending the posses- 
sion of property when claims are made against it by 
those in favor with the government, it is proposed to 
examine the method of taxation now adopted in Cuba, 
and also its extent and operation. 

Whatever may be the cause of the mystery in w^hich 
the gross amount of taxation is involved, it is a fact 
that the publications which are made by the local ad- 
ministration neither comprehend the whole range of 
taxes, nor do they generally affix to each head any thing 
more than the balance subject to the control of the gen- 
eral treasury. We commence the list by the official 
statement of 1844. which is mainly composed of haU 
ances of different taxes, the chief names of which are 
the following : 

Alcabala (or six per cent, on sales of real estate, of 
slaves, on auction sales, on sales in shops). 

Bulls of the Pope. 

Brokers' tax. 

Cattle tax. 

Shopkeepers' tax. 

Tax on mortgages. 

Tax on donations. 

Tax on cockfighting. 

Tax on grants of crosses, or uses of uniform, etc. 

Tax on promissory notes, or bills of exchange. 

Tax on the municipal taxes, yearly tribute of the 
counts, marquises, and other titles. 



168 CUBA AND 

Tax on all deaths of non-insolvent persons. 

Tax on investments in favor of the clergy, sale of the 
public offices, sealed paper, penalties in favor of the 
royal household. 

Tax on the property of the Jesuits, sales of public 
lands. 

Tax on establishment of auctioneers. 

Tax (four per cent.) on law expenses. 

Water canal tax, royal order of Charles III., etc. 

To this must of course be added the custom-house 
duties on imports and exports, and tonnage on vessels. 

The proceeds of the revenue for the year 
1844, comprehending the custom-houses, mar- 
itime and inland, of the Provinces of Havana, 
St. Jago, and Puerto Principe, and net pro- 
ceeds of lottery tax, and balance of tax on 
religious orders, are, according to the before- 
named official statement $10,693,626 01 

To the above must be added the amount 
expended on smuggled goods w^hich have been 
paid to those concerned in the act w^ithout any 
material relief to the consumer. In the official 
statement above referred to, $7,364,005 is the 
amount given for maritime duties ; and deduct- 
ing one fifth for tonnage charges, we have left 
$5, 891, '204 for duties on imports and exports. 
As a moderate calculation, add one fifth of this 
sum for what is paid on smuggled goods 1 178,240 00 

The lottery tax, though called voluntary, is 
no less a burden, and the greatest incentive to 
idleness and dishonesty amongst the poorer 
classes, and especially among the slaves. The 
ancient custom of purchasing freedom is be- 
coming almost obsolete among the latter — their 
hopes being exclusively fixed on the freaks of 
fortune, which, as it may well be supposed, do 
not always favor the most worthy, and there- 
fore the most capable of enjoying the rights of 
freemen. 35,000 tickets at $4, in sixteen 
drawings, and 20,000 tickets at Sl6, in one 



•$11,871,866 01 



THE CUBANS. 169 

$11,871,866 01 
drawing, make the whole sum drained from 

the pubhc in one year $2,560,000 

There being a scandalous conni- 
vance to prevent the public from 
obtaining tickets from the offices, 
6i per cent, additional must be 
adc^ed 160,000 

2,720,000 
Less the amount included in the 
official statement 761,000 

1,959,000 00 

The post-office expenses, which left, in 
1843, a balance to the treasury of $5734 Oli, 
amounted to $997,341, according to Sagra, in 
1830. Since then the population, which in 
1827 was 730,562, according to this writer, 
who was officially employed, and is a native 
European, has increased to 1,045,000. The 
country surrounding Cardenas, Jucaro, Sagua 
Ja Grande, and San Juan de los Remedies, 
and Nuevitas, has also greatly increased, and 
correspondence as well ; new branches have 
been established to convey the mails, so that 
it will be quite safe to calculate upon half a 
million increase, calling it now 1,500,000 00 

Census on land, according to the same 
Sagra 4,000,000 00 

The 4 per cent, on law expenses in the 
statement commencing this calculation, gives 
the sum of $62,240 ; but as 10 per cent, is 
deducted previously as a commission in favor 
of the revenue, the amount received in the 
treasury is really $69,155, which 

by 25 is $1,728,875 

Deducting the sum included in the 

statement 62,240 

1,666,635 00 

The municipal taxes received by the corpo- 
rations from those who purchase the right of 
collecting them, amounted, nccording to the 
memoirs of the Economical Society and the 

$20,997,501 01 
S 



170 CUBA AND 



Faro Industrial of the 5th June 1847, with 

reference to the year 1843 — 

For the Province of Havana, . . . $552,577 75 
" " St. Jago... 101,063 00 

»* " P. Prinoipe 76,997 25 



730,638 00 
To this, in order to cover expenses 
of collection, and profit to the spec- 
ulator, add 25 per cent 182,659 00 



,997,501 01 



$913,297 00 
Apart from these municipal taxes 
received by the corporation, there 
may be others received by the very 
contractors who supply the object 
of its creation. There is one called 
the " limpieza," or cleaning of the 
city, which the same Faro Indus- 
trial values at 53,400 00 

This gives for municipal taxes, at 

least 966,697 GO 

The next tax, is that in favor of the algua- 
zils-mayor, as far as it weighs on cattle and 
animals. 

This charge was originally allowed by the 
crown in compensation of certain pecuniary 
services. In the course of time those sei-vices 
have become insignificant, and more than paid 
by the country. For lai-ge cattle, $1,25 each 
must be paid to him, and $4,75 to the crown ; 
and more or less, in the same proportion, 
for smaller animals. The true items not 
having ever been published, the amount of 
$652,408 is adopted, which the above quoted 
Faro Industi-ial fixes as the government tax in 
the island on cattle, and for the proportion as 
follows: As the duty, $4,75, is to the $1,25 
alguazil-mayor charge, so is $652,408 to the 
whole amount of charges of alguazils-mayor in 
the island , 171,475 00 

The licenses given by the captain-general, 

$22,135,673 01 



THE CUBANS. 171 

$22,135,673 01 
governors of towns, and captains of county dis- 
tricts, is another subject of heavy taxation. 
The negro slaves, or their masters for them, 
are frequently subject to it ; but to simplify 
the estimate, take the amount of the free 
population, which, in the census of 1841, 
ranges thus : 

White, 418,291 

Free Colored, 88,054 

Free Negroes, 64,784 

571,129 
Supposing one fifth of this number 
to be heads of families forced to have 
a license, the number will be 114,225 

50 cents for the certificate of the commissary 
of the ward, and 31^ for the signature of the 
magistrate, viz., 81^ 92,807 81 

But as the above does not comprehend the 
whole of the licenses given for separate excur- 
sions, suppose that only one fifth of the number 
before accounted for shall make one single trip 
in the year, say 22,845 individuals, at only 
Sl| cents 7,139 06 

Another charge of this nature is that on 
passports, for which take the amount of 
38,000 individuals, given in the census of 1841 
as garrison and transient population, and de- 
ducting 18,000 for troops, there will be left 
20,000 ; of which, from the number of crews, 
and other causes, suppose that only 6000 pass- 
ports are given. The charge made is $1,50 
for the captain-general, or other subaltern 
governor, $1 for the warden's report and 
sealed paper, and $2,75 for the certificate of 
the judge of property of absent heirs ; in all 
$5,25; amounting to, for the 6000 

mentioned $31,500 

' But out of this number, 2000, it is 
fair to suppose, will apply for the pass- 
port to the " agencia," an office kept 
by military officers who have remark- 

$22,235,619 88 



172 CUBA AND 



$31,500 
able advantages in procuring ready- 
made passports for $8,50 apiece, 
which, less than $5,25, leaves $3,25. 6,500 



$22,235,619 88 



38,000 00 



The crown derives another source of revenue 
from the sale of offices, vendibles, and renun- 
ciables, that are subject to being sold or re- 
nounced in favor of another person. In the 
statement of inland customs and revenue for 
the year 1843, the sales of the kind were sta- 
ted to amount to $92,737 ; but whatever the 
sum of the present year may be, it is sup- 
posed to be included in the official statement or 
first item commencing this estimate. Among 
the many offices of this kind, are the alguazils- 
mayor, whose various fees are counted in the 
law expenses and in the slaughter of cattle, 
both herein estimated. Another of them is 
the fiel executor, also a member of the cor- 
poration, whose duty is to examine the weights 
and measures of all retail and wholesale deal- 
ers, visiting the different stores. It is assumed 
that the one holding this office in the city 
of Havana, which gives a handsome income for 
a family, renders $8000 net, which is equal to 
$12,000 on the country, to pay clerks and other 
expenses ; and judging that the corporation 
taxes of Havana, $384,000, will bear to $730,- 
000, and the taxes of similar nature of the 
whole island, the same proportion, it follows 
that all the fiel executors will amount to 22,812 00 

The government has also sold archives for 
notaries, where deeds are entered and re- 
corded. There may be presumed to be about 
fifty in the whole island, and to be sold from 
3000 to 50,000 dollars apiece. Although the 
latter price is nearer the general one than the - 
former, the majority may be much beneath 
it ; adopting the price of $15,000 as the true 
rate for the whole, it gives $750,000. They 
are very productive, and must be so, on ac- 



$22,296,431 88 



THE CUBANS. VjS 

$22,296,431 88 
count of the peculiar conditions of all offices, 
vendibles, and renunciables, which, whenever 
they pass from one possessor to another, or 
even to the lawful heir, leave a portion of their 
price in favor of the crown. They are also 
subject to confiscation, when a monthly in- 
junction of a renouncing deed is neglected ; 
and tliere are even days each month in which 
should the death of the proprietor taiie place, 
the crown takes back its grant. This also ap- . 
plies to the alguazils-mayor, fiel executor, etc. 
Great profits must be the recompense of such 
disadvantageous conditions. It is not there- 
fore an exaggeration to suppose these ar- 
chives to produce forty per cent., of which 
sum we consider ten per cent, the just price 
of the sei-vice ; and the remaining thirty per 
cent, is the penalty which the community pays 
in extra charges for the resources anticipated 
to government at these monstrous sales. — 
$750,000 at thirty per cent 225,000 00 

Fines which are constantly imposed by sub- 
altern officers of justice in Cuba will con- 
tinually strike the eye of a foreigner, on 
looking over the Havana newspapers. The 
infractions of the by-laws are the pretexts; 
but the menials of government are guided often 
by a thirst for money, which excludes a just and 
impartial exercise, since they are interested 
by having a portion assigned for their benefit. 
It is fair to compute the amount of fines at 
$25,000 publicly avowed, and $25,000 privately 
exacted and not accounted for. That the above 
calculation may not appear altogether arbiti-ary, 
it may be added, that the fines of the royal 
household, which are the most insignificant 
in the island, amounted, according to the state- 
ment of 1843, to $10,881 50,000 00 

Fees in the captain-general's tribunal are 
likewise another tax not included in any other 
calculation. The present captain-general has 
designated two days in the week to laear actions 



$22,571,431 88 



174 CUBA AND 

$22,571,431 88 
verbally established and decided in his pres- 
ence, or in that of officers whom he appoints 
in his lieu. Persons having difficult claims, 
who do not find in the usual course of pro- 
ceeding, the easy attainment of their object, 
apply there, and orders of immediate payment 
issue often in utter disregard of law, or tho 
state in which the case may be in another 
court. No pleadings, but the order of pay- 
ment, under threat of imprisonment, consti- 
tute the course of this strange, all-powerful 
judge. Calculating on 100 days of audience, 
in which he or his delegates hear ten suits 
each, and estimating his fee at $8,50 for each, 
though the sum may not publicly be acknow- 
ledged, it will give 8,500 00 

The fish and meat markets, monopolized by 
General Tacon, according to his own report, 
published in 1838, have had the effect of ele- 
vating the price of these commodities at least 
thirty per cent. The yearly consumption of 
large cattle, being 86,000, gives, at 

this estimate , . $1,500,000 

Suppose smaller animals and service 

one sixth of this value 250,000 

1,750,000 
The fish consumed can be at least 
estimated at one eighth of the 
meat, viz 218,750 

$1,968,750 
And thirty per cent, on this sum will render . . 590,625 00 

N. B. The seller of cattle obtains only $2,50 
for each arrobe of 25 lbs. of meat, while the 
consumer pays really, whatever may be pub- 
lished to the contraiy, $5,50. Here, then, 
is a measure for the weight of the monopoly. 
There is another official data which is sub- 
joined. It is a statement published by General 
Tacon, as an appendix to his report of his own 
acts, containing estimates of the buildings by 

$23,170,556 88 



THE CUBANS, 



175 



him reconstructed, the revenue they produced 
previously, that w^hich they produce now, and 
that which they would produce to the corpora- 
tion after the time should be elapsed for which 
they were bound to the contractors. 



$23,170,556 88 



Valuation. 
Fish market $34,03i 06^4 

Christina meat mkt, 115,521 00>^ 

do. do. 67,876 03 

Slaughter at Tacon Sq. 47,780 06 

the Jail, 480,640 04 

At Governm't Palace, 102,434 04 



Old 
Revenue. 

$864 


Present 
Revenue. 

$864 


Future 
Revenue. 
$7,000 


I 8,712 


11,100 


38,100 


2,400 


18,600 


7,800 
18,600 
13,900 



$848,282 24 $11,976 $30,564 $85,400 

In the present case, this exorbitant rise in 
the rent is only the expression of the forced 
monopoly, unheard-of petty renting of apart- 
ments of sale, and strict severity in preventing 
the sales elsewhere, in the city and its suburbs. 

In the general statement are not counted 
$4,25 per death, and 75 cts. per christening, 
and generally what are called Rent a Oven- 
ciONAL, which Mr. Sagra calculated, for 1830, 
at . 

Private extra fees demanded for marriages, 
under various pretences 

The charge for renewing what is called the 
apprenticeship of emancipated slaves, an au- 
thority de facto exercised by the captain-gen- 
eral, is $102 apiece. Since General Valdez, 
whose Honorable conduct reflects honor on his 
nation, granted about 3000 patents of freedom 
during about one year, it may be supposed that 
at least one thousand become due every year . 

The custom of extraordinary and expensive 
sei*vices on the death of a relative, imposing a 
ruinous tax on the survivors, is another soui-ce 
to the priesthood, which may be appreciated 
from reading the by-laws of General Valdez, 
regulating the prices of the use of the scaf- 
folding, carpets, etc. A mortality of five per 
cent. CD the 418,000 white inhabitants, will 



250,000 00 
15,000 00 



102,000 00 



$23,537,556 88 



176 CUBA AND 

$23,537,556 88 
give 20,900 deaths, of which one fourth we 
may suppose capable of doing something to 
save apparent neglect of their deceased friends ; 
and this number, 5225, if only calculated at 
the minimum rate of $10 each, is 52,250 GO 

Tolls on the bridge of Marianao 56,000 00 

Private gifts for nominations of captains of 
districts, city ward commissaries, watchmen, 
etc 10,000 00 

Permits for gambling, etc. (private) 50,000 00 

Tithes. In the general statement which 
is taken as guide, summing up the amounts of 
the revenue in 1844, two main divisions are 
found — the maritime and the inland taxes. 
There is no specification of the latter cor- 
responding to that year ; but in the year pre- 
ceding, the only sum belonging to tithes as a 
deposit, was $19,831 03. 

From the memoirs of the Economical So- 
ciety, are subjoined the following statements, 
which were also published in the Faro above 
quoted : 

Four years from 1833 to 1836— 

Jurisdiction of Havana. 

1833 . . . . $227,780 00| 

1834 .... 247,036 04^ 

1835 .... 262,653 01 

1836 .... 246,102 04^ 

$973,571 lOi 
Jurisdiction of St. Jago. 

1833 . . . $50,260 04 

1834 .... 50,260 04 

1835 .... 37,822 05| 

1836 .... 37,822 05| 

$176,164 19i 
Four years from 1837 to 1840 — 

$23,705,806 88 



THE CUBANS. 



117 



Jurisdiction of Havana. 

1837 .... $220,438 07i 

1838 .... 217,928 06^ 

1839 .... 190,164 001 

1840 .... 186,555 06 



$23,705,806 88 



1837 
1833 
1839 
1840 



$815,085 20i 

Jurisdiction of St. Jago. 

. $37,822 051 

37,822 05| 

49,547 00 

49,547 00 



$174,738 lid 



Province of Havana, first four 
years, $973,571 10^ 

Province of St. Jago, first 
four years, .... 176,164 19^ 



$1,149,735 29| 

Province of Havana, second 
four years, .... $815,085 20^ 

Province of St. Jago, second 
four years, .... 174,738 11^ 



Total 



This by 8 years, gives 



989,823 32 
. $2,139,558 61| 

. $267,444 82^ 

The above result, having been obtained un- 
der the law which only required the tax on 
sugar from estates founded previously to 1804, 
is no criterion to what the tithe on sugar es- 
tates will be from the year 1847. To en- 
deavor to fix on some items by which its 
present product can be calculated, it is ne- 
cessary to know what is the relative import- 
ance of sugar estates compared to other agri- 
cultural pursuits subject to tithe. For this pur- 



$23,705,806 88 



178 CUBA AND 

$23,705,806 88 
pose, take from Ramon Sagra's " Breve Idea," 
published in 1836, the following estimates : 

Capital employed. 

For raising cattle, . . . ^26,767,977 

Pastures 21,691,610 

Susar estates .... 83,780,877 
Coffee " . . . . 85,825,000 
Farms » . . . . 111,861,984 
Tobacco vegas (valleys), . . 6,532,420 



$336,459,868 
Sugar consequently represents one fourth 
Tlierefore out of the $267,358 tax of a com- 
mon 3^ear, $66,839 should be deducted, as cor- 
responding to sugar, and the remainder will be 

the tithe on all the other articles 200,519 00 

Now, as regards the tax on this article, 
which according to the new law has commenced 
to be exacted, and is 2^ per cent, on the 
gross products of all estates not having had fif- 
teen crops (the latter being exempted during 
that jieriod, provided they have not been erect- 
ed on woodlands), take the crop of 1834, 
which, being thirteen years ago, may be sup- 
posed to constitute the quantity now subject 
to pay, though it will certainly be greater 
from the increase of each individual estate. 
In that year the chief imports were 
8,408,231 arrobas of sugar. 
1,817,315 " coffee. 

104,213 hogsheads of molasses. 
In the year 1841 — 

13,082,288 arrobas of sugar. 
1,998,846 " coffee. 

119,138 hogsheads of molasses. 
And in 1843, the official balance gives 889,103 
boxes — equal to 14,225,648 arrobas, addmg to 
which the enormous quantity of Moscavado 
sugar in the districts of Sagua, it is safe to 
call it, with the subsequent increase, twenty 
millions of arrobas. The coflee of the said 
year was 1,631,782 arrobas, and 191,093 hogs- 



$23,906,325 88 



THE CUBANS. 179 

$23,906,325 88 
heads of molasses. The su,a:av crop is now, 
therefore, equivalent to 1,252,000 boxes of six 
teen arrobas; and that of 1834, say 8,500,000 
arrobas to 531,250 boxes. Tlie increase which 
lias taken |)lace from 1834 to 1847, in fourteen 
years, is 720,750, or 51,482 boxes a year; of 
which, the two and a half per cent, will be 
1287 boxes ; which, at fifteen dollars apiece, 
will J2;ive a yearly advance of $19,305 to the 
sujjar tithe. Two and a half per cent, on the 
crop of 1834, will be 13,281 boxes at S15 199,215 GO 

The above will be j^early increased with 
§22,305 more, until the whole sugar crop will 
be subject, which, not counting the progressive 
extension of culture, will give on the present 
production of 1,250,000 boxes, .$4f)8,750. 

N. B. Against any suggestions calculated to 
hnpair tlie exactitude of tlie above inferences, 
it is to be noted that the jiroportion of su- 
gar paying taxes was much less under the old 
law, and therefore the fourth deducted, as if 
all suijar were subject to it, in order to obtain 
the tithe on other articles, Avas much be^'ond 
its real importance. As a general rule, great 
caution has been exercised in admitting data 
not official. 

Spoliations of Taxgatherers. The exemption 
from this tax being founded in the number of 
crops made by an estate, and on tlie fact of its 
being erected on woodlands, the formula to es- 
tablish these facts, and the right of exemption, 
was decreed by the Board of Authorities to be 
a sumi7iary course, without law expenses, or 
any tedious proceedings of the kind. Under a 
spirit of corruption, this safeguard has been 
bi-oken through, and whole apartments have 
been hired in Havana to store the enormous 
and numerous packages of processes unjustly, 
and under various pretences, issued to threaten 
the planters, and force them in spite of their 
rights, to a private compromise. There is no 
doubt it is much under the real sum, snatched 



$24,105,540 88 



180 CUBA AND 

$24,105,540 88 
in this TTifinner from the countiy, to estimate it 
at twenty per cent, of the whole sugar tax, say 40,000 00 

Passengers landing to and from steamboats, 
where the latter come near the shore, are 
forced, in Havana, to pay twenty-five cents for 
each person, and something additional for freight 
or excessive baggage. Calculating that the 
number either going or coming from the buetta 
abijo, or Matanzas, by steamboats is 64 

in a day, at 25 cts $16 00 

One fifth for baggage 5 20 

$21 20 
Corresponding to a year 7,738 00 

In the present administration there is a mo- 
nopoly of manure, which, by compelling it to 
be thrown on one spot, and preventing its being 
carried even to farms, secures a profit which, 
weighing on the city, is computed at 5,000 00 

The custom which forces the poor often to 
be suddenly deprived of their horses in the 
midst of tlieir excursions, in order to convey 
military baggage, which being paid for by the 
treasury of the island might as well be con- 
tracted for beforehand, added to the gratuitous 
conveyance of troops by railroads, is a tax equal to 5,000 00 

Poit charges of vessels paid to captains of 
the ports, health officers, etc., on 2586 vessels, 
at an average of fortj'- dollars 103,440 00 

Tax on coastwise seamen 10,000 00 

Subscriptions. Notwithstanding the taxes es- 
tablished for building and support of churches, 
those of Monserratte, Cardenas, Matanzas, the 
cemetery of Bejucal, and of every country place, 
the old theatre, and whatever public work or 
dispensation is undertaken by any one chief of 
town, is always carried through by means ot 
subscriptions obtained by the coercitive influ- 
ence of those in office ; the barracks for 
Roque, Matanzas, Coliseo, and Cardenas, the 
support of veteran guards for the country, 
bridges, repairs of roads, pubfic subscriptions 

$24,276,718 88 



THE CUBANS. 181 

^24,276,718 88 
and entertainments, are thus capriciously taxed. 
The very military hospitals are built by such 
means. In foct, there are no objects, however 
sacred, exempt from liability to subscription, 
not excepting even those entitled to an ex- 
tensive support from the public treasury. The 
amount derived from this constant source of 
taxation cannot be less than 25,000 00 

Error of 10,000 less in calculation of lottery, 
in sixteen draw^ings, as per note.* 160,000 00 

The tax on the mineral ore exported of 20 
per cent, on its value, say $2,013,543, will 
give , 402,708 60 

$24,864,427 48 

The detail of Cuban taxes is here concluded. When 
it is considered how small a portion, comparatively, of 
the sum collected is applied to the legitimate object of 
taxation ; when it is considered that for variety and 
extent, for amount and oppressiveness, they exceed 
any taxation imposed by any government in any country 
upon the earth ; when the enormity of the whole sub- 
ject is regarded in all its features, no one can repress 
a feeling of abhorrence at such acts of tyranny, and of 
wonder that they have been so long endured in silence. 

So much for taxation in Cuba. For grievances gen- 
erally, the following may be considered a correct and 
faithful abstract. 

On the death of Ferdinand VII., Cuba was included 
in the constitutional reform published in the Estatuto 
Real. 

In 1837, the democratic constitution of 1812 was 
proclaimed, and when General Lorenzo repeated its 
promulgation in St. Jago, General Tacon sent an arm- 
ed expedition to put down the system authorized by 
law, which act was rewarded by the court. 

* The number of tickets advertised lately being 37,500 instead of 
35,000, makes $10,000 for each drawing, which, for the sixteen draw- 
ings for the year, makes a difference of $160,000. 



182 CUBA AND 

The Cuban deputies, legally elected, were refused 
admittance in the same year at the Spanish Cortes, and 
a resolution was then passed establishing that Cuba 
should be governed by special laws. 
I The organs of government in Spain and in Cuba 
—- 4aave since declared, that the civil laws, as they are 
executed, and the paramount authority of the agents 
of government, are all that is required in the island ; 
while arbitrary rule and rapacity are the known results. 

Besides representatives in Congress, Spain has de- 
prived Cuba of all means of redress. The press, under 
the most infamous and servile censorship, is a weapon 
only wielded against their rights. A petition, signed 
by more than two, is condemned as a seditious act. 
The corporations have no longer a representative 
character, besides being under the immediate control 
of the captain-general, who appoints their members, 
and dictates at will their resolutions. The Board of 
Improvement has become a mere arm of the govern- 
ment, to sanction despotic acts, to support additional 
taxes, and to introduce mixed races into the population. 

All good and enlightened patriots are forced into ob- 
scurity, or persecuted, or expatriated. 

Martial law, since 1825. The captains-general have 
increased their encroachments until they now exercise 
the legislative, judicial, and executive power. 

No trade can be followed, no shop opened, no goods 
sold in the street, without a license. 

The Creoles are excluded from the a,rmy, the judi- 
ciary, the treasury, and customs, and from all influential 
or lucrative positions ; private specula.tions and mo- 
nopolies are favored and established with a view of 
taking from the former their means of wealth. 

Services are extorted from the poor in the country, 
to serve in the precarious police sustained therein ; fines 
are imposed, and forced aid for the repairing of the 
roads, all according to the will of the officer in com- 
mand, or the pliancy of the individual. 



THE CUBANS. 183 

More than twenty millions of regular taxes are col- 
lected by the order of the Spanish government, the 
captain-general, the lieutenant-governors, and of the 
country district judges. 

These taxes are employed in supporting an army of 
twenty thousand men to intimidate and oppress the 
peaceful inhabitants of Cuba ; and likewise the entire 
navy of Spain, unnecessarily stationed in the ports of 
the island for the same purpose ; in the paying of a 
vast number of officers residing either on the island 
or in Spain ; and in remittances to the court. 

In spite of the enormous tithe collected, it is only by 
subscriptions that the inhabitants can secure to them- 
selves temples for their worship, or cemeteries for their 
dead ; and for a baptism or a burial, or to obtain any ofj 
the consolations of religion, the care of which is indi- 
rectly under the all-absorbing power of military rule, 
it requires a large additional sum to be paid. 

The military government has taken from the other 
political and administrative branches the control of ed- 
ucation, in order to restrict, to limit, and to embarrass 
it. 

The tributary system has drained many sources of 
wealth. The flour monopoly has put down the cultiva- 
tion of coffee; and the grazing of cattle has become a 
sad speculation from the tax on its consumption. 

The heedlessly supported slave trade — which carries 
with it additional danger to the existing slave property, 
from an increased number of the savage Africans, and 
the entanglement of diplomatic relations with England — 
though rejected by the enlightened portion of the com- 
munity, is kept up because of the clandestine profits it 
brings to the captain-general. 

The farmers have to pay 2h per cent, on sugar, and 
10 per cent, on their other harvests, when gathered; 
the same is paid by all engaged in raising live stock, 
for all their cattle, exclusive of the charges arising from 
an exportation. 



184 CUBA AND 

There is a tax of $1,25 cents upon every fanega of 
salt (about a hundred weight), which causes the price 
of that article to be raised to an immoderate sum. 

The Cuban pays 6 to 6h per cent, of the value of 
any slave, or any property in town or country, that he 
may sell ; besides all other charges of notaries, of regis- 
tration, of stamped paper, etc., etc. 

There is stamped paper, for a special purpose, the 
use of which is enforced by the government, and sold by 
it at the price of eight dollars every sheet ; and it is 
necessary on solemn oath to prove one's poverty, in 
order to be admitted to the use of cheaper paper, a 
sheet of which costs six cents. 

No one can have in his house any company or amuse- 
ment of any sort, if he does not solicit, obtain, and 
pay for a license ($2,50), or he must submit to be 
mulcted for an infraction of the regulations. 

Every inhabitant is compelled to ask for a license, 
and pay for the same, when he wants to go from the 
place of his residence. 

No citizen, however peaceful and respectable he may 
be, is allowed to walk through the city after ten o'clock 
in the evening, unless he carry with him a lantern, and 
successively obtains leave of all the watchmen on his 
way, the infraction of which law is punished with im- 
mediate arrest, and a fine of eight dollars. 

He is not permitted to lodge any person in his house 
for a single night, either native or foreigner, be the same 
his friend or a member of his family, without giving 
information of the same, also under the penalty of a like 
punishment. 

He cannot remove his residence from one house into 
another, without giving notice previously to the author- 
ities of his intention, under the penalty of a heavy 
fine. 

An order has been made which in effect prohibits 
parents from sending their children to the United States 
for purposes of education ; and such parents are driven 



THE CUBANS. 185 

to the expedient of proving ill health, or feigning it, in 
their children, in order to obtain passports for them. 

In the whole island a most brutal spirit of despotism 
is strikingly prevalent in all officials of the government, 
from the captain-general down to the most abject of his 
hirelings, without even excepting the municipal and oth- 
er local authorities. 

A diabolical scheme, concocted in the chambers of 
Alcoy, exists for perpetuating the importation of Afri- 
can slaves into Cuba, the primordial cause of her pres- 
ent hazardous position. 

In that scheme enter not merely some members of 
the royal family of Spain, but all its dependents, favor- 
ites, and satellites, including the cap tains -general of 
Cuba, and their subordinates. 

The " gratification" of half an ounce in gold, which 
was formerly received by the captains-general for every 
sack of charcoal (the nickname given by those engaged 
in this infamous traffic to the African slaves brought 
over), has risen to the large sum of three doubloons in 
gold. 

The colonial government and its confederates, not 
being able to elude the vigilance of the cruisers of the 
nations engaged in the suppression of this traffic, in or- 
der to continue the same, have had to appeal to a forced 
interpretation of existing treaties, pretending to show 
that such slaves are imported into Cuba from Brazil. 

These machinations are carried on by some mem- 
bers of the royal family in concert with the colonial 
government ; and the cabinet not only has full knowl- 
edge of the same, but authorizes and protects them, or, 
at least, winks at the practices. 

Within these last months various cargoes of African 
slaves, amounting in number to more than 3000, were 
imported into the island of Cuba, and there sold almost 
publicly ; and in gratifications set apart for the cap- 
tain-general, Senor Alcoy has already received the 



186 CUBA AND 

sum of 12,000 doubloons in gold— about 200,000 dol- 
lars. 

The sons of Cuba are persecuted, imprisoned, buried 
in dungeons, banished, sentenced to fortresses, and con- 
demned to death for calumnies, for imaginary crimes of 
disloj^alty, on no better foundation than flimsy suspicion, 
or false denunciations by infamous spies. C 



THE CUBANS. 187 



CHAPTER IX. 

What is to become of Cuba. — Spain and her American settlements. — 
Cuba cannot be held by Spain. — Progress of Events. — Right of 
Cuba to Revolutionize. — Must ultimately belong to England or to 
the United States. — Reasons why it will fall to the latter. — Con- 
clusion. 

Having presented briefly the past history and present 
situation of the Cubans, the inquiry naturally arises, 
what is to become of Cuba 1 

Spain was the first to plant her colonies in the new 
world. Taking the lead in European civilization, she 
became possessed of the entire extent of the American 
continent which lies between the forty-third degree of 
south, and the thirty-seventh degree of north latitude, 
a region possessing every variety of climate, capable of 
yielding every variety of vegetable product, abounding 
in mineral treasure, remarkable for the richness of its 
virgin soil, and promising inexhaustible wealth to the 
European adventurer. 

Compared with this magnificent range of country — 
exceeding the whole Russian empire in extent — Eng- 
land occupied a meagre and barren shore, the posses- 
sion of the greater part of which had to be disputed 
with the French and Dutch. 

Three hundred years have elapsed, and how stands 
the account 1 Spain has not a single foot upon the 
mainland of the American continent. Cuba and Porto 
Rico alone, of all her western possessions, have been 
preserved to her by the force of circumstances. In 
view of past history, with reference to the peculiar state 
of things in the island, as they now exist, considering the 
advance of the age in liberal sentiments, and in free 
institutions, regarding the inevitable progress of events, 



188 CUBA AND 

it cannot be held an unwise affirmation tliat CuBa must 
soon be lost to Spain. Much has been said, of late, 
about " manifest destiny," and the term has got to be 
a sort of watchword in the mouths of patriotic orators 
and political speech-makers. It is, however, a poor 
excuse for the unlawful seizure of the territory of a 
friendly power, or for the unwarrantable interference 
with their rights, to raise, in avoidance of the charge 
of robbery or oppression, the plea of " manifest desti- 
ny ;" for the same plea is as good in the mouth of the 
highwayman as in that of a power who shall take to the 
high road of nations, and, armed to the teeth, prey up- 
on the weaker. But for all that, there is a sense in 
which " manifest destiny" becomes no longer a byword ; 
for when the reflective observer of events endeavors to 
form an opinion as to the future, and from past exami- 
nation, and from all that he can see in the present, a 
result presents itself which is not to be mistaken, and 
which tells, with unerring certainty, what is to be ; he 
is content to say that it is the manifest destiny of a 
nation to do, to become, or to achieve this or that. 

It has not been owing to the good management of 
Spain, or to the loyalty of Cuba, that up to now the 
former has retained her colony. Rather has it been 
the good fortune of the one, and the misfortune of the 
other. It has always been understood that the United 
States would never consent that any European power 
other than Spain should hold that island. Important 
as the possession of Cuba was, Spain was supposed to 
be too powerless and inert to render her presence dan- 
gerous to the United States. But the island has, not- 
withstanding, been watched by this government with 
jealous interest. This country interfered in 1826 when 
the invasion of Cuba and Porto Rico was resolved 
upon by the combined forces of Mexico and Colombia, 
not because it was desirous of opposing the extension 
of liberal principles, but because it was apprehensive 
that independence would not result from the proposed 



THE CUBANS. 189 

invasion, and that Cuba might in consequence fall into 
the hands of some other European power — which on 
no account could be permitted. As a proof of this, 
the following extract is made from the message of John 
Quincy Adams, who was then President. 

" The condition of the islands of Cuba and Porto 
Rico is of deeper import, and more immediate bearing 
upon the present interests and future prospects of our 
Union. The correspondence herewith transmitted will 
show how earnestly it has engaged the attention of this 
government. The invasion of both those islands by 
the united forces of Mexico and Colombia, is avowedly 
among the objects matured by the belligerent states at 
Panama. The convulsions to which, from the peculiar 
compositions of their population^ they would be liable 
in the event of such an invasion, and the danger there- 
from resulting of their falling, ultimately, into the 
hands of some European power other than Spain, will 
not admit of our looking at the consequences, to which 
the Congress of Panama may lead, with indifference. 
It is unnecessary to enlarge upon this topic, or to say 
more than all, our efforts, in reference to this interest, 
will be to preserve the existing state of things.''^ 

It is a sound proposition to put to the civilized world, 
that no nation shall, at this period, oppress by any ar- 
bitrary or tyrannical despotism, a dependent country or 
colony. Although the means of redress may not 
always be at hand, no one now disputes the right of the 
oppressed to seek for and to use them. 

If a true statement has been given of the situation 
of Cuban affairs, Cuba has a right to attempt her free- 
dom. Taking what has been said for truth, a case is 
made out which shall justify Cuba, by the unanimous 
voice of mankind, for the act of revolution. In the 
struggle she will be entitled to the sympathy of all 
Christendom. How far nations should adhere to the 
doctrine of neutrality remains, as yet, unsettled. A 
deviation from it is a dangerous departure ; for although 



190 CUBA AND 

there is not one rule of morality for a nation, and an- 
other for an individual ; and although, as individuals, 
the whole world should sj^mpathize Avith, if not assist 
in the ciFort of an oppressed people struggling with des- 
potism, still, in such an instance, a nation cannot be held 
to the same rule. The reason is plain enough. If one 
man beholds another inflicting blows and wounds upon 
a weaker and unresisting fellow-creature, he does not 
hesitate to interfere in his behalf, without stopping to 
inquire whether or not he may be committing a techni- 
cal assault. But a nation cannot interfere in the same 
way. The individual who comes forward to protect his 
fellow is amenable to the law of the land in which he 
lives, and he must answer to it if he has done a wrong. 
But a nation is amenable to no constituted earthly au- 
thority. How far is this forbearance to be carried ? 
Is there any limit to it 1 It is certain that the govern- 
ment of the United States did not hesitate to sj^mpa- 
thize with the Greeks in their struggle for liberty, and 
were only prevented by a constitutional objection from 
granting them substantial national aid. To preserve a 
settled state of things, the United States, as has been 
shoAvn, promptly interfered to prevent the invasion of 
Cuba by Mexico and Colombia. How far the same 
government ought now to interfere, again to preserve 
things from change, or how far it ought to forward the 
change, it is not necessary to discuss here. 

Spain is too weak much longer to hold her Cuban 
possessions. It needs but to strike the blow, and inde- 
pendence is achieved to the island. In this instance 
the first step is emphatically half the journey, and that 
step will not long be delayed. 

Cuba has the power, as well as the will and wisdom 
to be free. She cannot be kept forever in bonds, en- 
dowed as she is with a population of 1,200,000 ; with 
a revenue of $20,000,000 ; with the intercourse and 
light attending $60,000,000 of outward and inward 
trade ; with a territory equal to that of the larger states ; 



THE CUBANS. 191 

with a soil teeming with the choicest productions ; with 
forests of the most precious woods ; with magnificent 
and commanding harbors ; with an unmatched position 
as the warder of the Mexican Gulf, and the guardian 
of the communication with the Pacific ; Cuba, the 
queen of the American islands, will not consent always 
to remain a manacled slave, and when the chains are to 
break, the United States can no more say, " Cuba is 
naught to us," than Cuba can detach herself from her 
anchorage in the portals of the American sea, or her 
sentinelship over against the entrance of the thousand- 
armed Mississippi. 

Then arises the question, what is to become of Cuba 1 

She will remain independent ; she will come under 
the protection of England ; or, she will form one of 
the confederated United States. 

So far as the interests of Cuba are concerned, a con- 
nection with England of the advantageous character 
which that country would inevitably grant to the 
island, or annexation to the United States, would be 
more for its welfare and prosperity, than for her to 
maintain the position of solitary independence. It is 
rational, then, to suppose she would adopt one of the 
two remaining positions. 

That Cuba shall ever fall under the power or influ- 
ence of England, is a thing simply out of the question. 
The United States cannot permit any European power 
to erect a Gibraltar which shall command both north 
and south, and which can at any moment cut in two 
the trade between the Gulf and Atlantic states, and 
break up at pleasure the sea communication between 
New Orleans and New York. In a military point of 
view, Cuba locks up in a closed ring, the whole sweep 
of the Mexican Gulf. Its seven hundred miles of 
coast is one mighty fortress ; each one of its hundred 
hill-crowned bays is a haven of shelter to an entire 
navy, and an outpost to sentinel every movement of 
offence and to bar out every act of hostile import. 



192 CUBA AND 

Standing like a warder in the entrance of the Gulf of 
Mexico, yet stretching far to the east, so as to overlook 
and intercept any unfriendly demonstration upon either 
of the great thoroughfares to South America or the 
Pacific, it is in a position to overawe the adjacent 
islands, and watch and defend all the outside ap- 
proaches to the Isthmus routes to the Pacific, while it 
guards the portals of the vast inland sea, the reservoir 
of the Mississippi and Mexican trade, the rendezvous 
of California transit, and, what has not yet been duly 
heeded, the outlet of an immense though new-born 
mineral wealth, which is yet to control the metal mar- 
kets of Christendom. 

In short, it makes the complete bulwark of the Mex- 
ican Gulf, and only leaves to it two gates ; one between 
Cape Antonio, the western extremity of the island, and 
Cape Catoche, which advances from the coast of Yuca- 
tan to meet it, and forms a strait less than 100 miles 
wide ; and the other between Hicacos, the most north- 
ern point of Cuba, and Cape Sable, the southern ex- 
tremity of Florida, but a httle more than 100 miles 
apart, and between which passes the " Old Channel" 
of the Bahamas. 

Half a dozen steamers would bridge with their can- 
non the narrow straits between Yucatan and the west 
point of Cuba, and between Florida and Matanzas on 
the north, and seal hermetically to every aggressive 
stranger the entire coast circle of the American Medi- 
terranean. This simple geographical fact constitutes 
Cuba the key of the Gulf, and it would be felt if it 
passed into the grasp of a strong and jealous rival. 
England, firmly resting on Cuba, and with Jamai-^a and 
the Bahamas to flank her steam operations, would have 
full retreat and succor for her fleets, and wouM be able 
at need to concentra.te the force of an empire against 
the coasting trade. With such a firm and convenient 
cover as that isla-nd. with its self-defendod coast and 
secure harbors, she could face, Janus-like, in every 



THE CUBANS. 193 

direction. With Canada and the Bermudas — raised 
for that purpose into a strong naval station — opposite 
our centre on the Atlantic, and half way between those 
strong extremes, she would present a dangerous front 
to the whole northern coast, while she executed the bold 
threat of her minister, to " shut up the Gulf of Mexico, 
cut in twain the commerce between it and the Atlantic 
states, and close the mouth of the Mississippi and its 
hundred tributaries to the trade and assistance of the 
shipping and manufacturing states." But strike Cuba 
— the central and noblest jewel — ^from this diadem of 
power, and her broken circlet of American strongholds 
is no longer formidable. 

England — controlling Cuba on the north as she 
claims to control the Mosquito shore on the south, and 
mistress of Balize on the west as she is of Jamaica on 
the east — would be the arbitress of the Caribbean Sea, 
even now almost her own, and well guarded by her 
long array of Leeward and Windward Islands from 
other intrusion. 

The same steam fleets that watch, and the same 
island key that locks and unlocks the Gulf of Mexico, 
with the long chain of rivers and states depending on 
it, also watches the inlets of the Caribbean and locks 
or unlocks the gates of the Pacific. Cuba, the queen 
of the Antilles, unrolls her long line of coast exactly 
in the path to the Pacific, whether by the Gulf or Isth 
mus ; and whoever holds her, commands the great 
highway to Mexico and South America, to Oregon, 
California, and the Pacific. 

In view of all this, can the United States permit 
England to control Cuba ? As well might England 
give up to the United States the command of the 
entrance to the English Channel and the Irish Sea. 
In short, it is a question about which there can be no 
argument. It is settled by the mere statement of the 
case. 

But, in conclusion, what inducements has Cuba, 
9 



194 CUBA AND 

when independent, to become one of the states of the 
A merinan confederacy ; and what advantages will the 
United States reap in admitting Cuba into that con- 
federacy 1 Enough has been said of the geographical 
situation of Cuba, when speaking of the tremendous 
power the possession of the island would give to 
England. Cuba seems placed, by the finger of a 
kindly Providence, between the Atlantic and the Mex- 
ican seas, at the crossing point of all the great lines 
of an immense coasting trade, to serve as the centre 
of exchange for a domestic commerce as extensive as 
the territory of the Union, and as free as its institu- 
tions. It is only after a careful study of the incredible 
extent and variety of the products of thirty states, 
with all their grades of climate, and in the whole cir- 
cumference of their natural and manufactured wealth, 
and then only with the map of North America dis- 
tinctly before the eye, that the importance of Cuba as 
a point of reception and distribution can be fairly 
understood. 

From the moment Cuba becomes an integral portion 
of the United States, all the exactions and oppressions 
which now weigh so heavily upon it, will be at an end. 
The island would enter at once into the enjoyment of 
civil and religious liberty ; and with her ports open to 
the commerce of the world — her inhabitants educated 
and religiously impressed — her soil cultivated to its 
full capability — her products sent to an unrestricted 
market — and under the influence of the moral and 
political force which are the vital elements of the 
American Constitution — she would become the most 
prosperous of the states. 

On the other hand, the advantages to be obtained by 
the United States by the annexation of Cuba, are incal- 
culable. 

If annexation was fully and freely established, Cuba 
would be as valuable to this confederacy as New York 
itself. As an outpost, vital to American trade and de- 



THE CUBANS. 195 

fence, and as a centre of transit and exchange, Cuba 
would grow in importance to the whole family of the 
confederation, in even measure with the growth of the 
states on the Pacific, and the rising tide of the oriental 
business which the flag of the Union is about to lead 
from Asia across the Isthmus. She lies exactly in the 
track of the golden current, and none of the states 
are, like her, in a position to watch and defend every 
inlet and outlet. 

In the circle of production, essential to a home sup- 
ply, always sure, and independent of foreign interfer- 
ence, Cuba can fill nobly the remaining gap, with her 
coffee, cocoa, and tropical fruits. In this, too, she 
would serve all her sister states, for she would sell to 
every one, and buy of every one, which is not true of 
the special product of any other state. She would also 
add as much as the Union really needs of sugar lands, 
and would make that, henceforth, a strong and distinct 
feature in the national balance of interests. 

A new sectional interest always implies another me- 
diator in the councils of the confederation — a proved 
truth in favor of the permanent equilibrium of the 
Republic, which the opponents of annexation refuse 
to take fairly into account. The manufacturing east, 
the wheat and cattle-raising west, the commercial mid- 
dle states, the cotton-growing southwest, the rice and 
sugar-planting south, and, last and latest, the new- 
born and gigantic mineral power starting up on the 
great northern lakes, and seaming the continent, down 
to the far Pacific, with its sudden influence — have each 
and every one their independent sectional weight and 
representation, as well as a difiused reciprocal depend- 
ence on each other, and on the Union as a whole. In 
the perpetually recurring — but under these balance 
checks never fatal — state opposition, every distinct in- 
terest is a distinct guarantee for the general equity of 
adjustment. It has been seen in the slavery discus- 
sions how far sectional bitterness can go, when the 



196 CUBA AND 

whole Union is reduced to two parties, with no disinter- 
ested and intermediate powers between them to urge 
peace, and teach concihation. Yet even in this stress it 
will be found, at last, that the counsels which open the 
way, and the votes that compel moderation and com- 
promise, will come from almost a third interest. The 
states that lay along the line of division, and that are 
themselves, in transition from slave -holding to emanci- 
pation, will come to the rescue and forbid extreme 
measures. Cuba may suffer from the dispute between 
the free and slave cultivated states ; but apart from 
this, she wants to come into the Union without offence 
to any, and to the absolute profit of every partner in 
the confederation. In bringing to the commonwealth a 
class of luxuries which every state largely demands 
and consumes, and which are not produced by any, she 
also brings to the Union fresh elements of mediation, 
harmony, and stable equipoise. 

The money value of this circulation of natural pro- 
ducts would be more conspicuously evident if Cuba 
could trade with the United States on family terms, 
unembarrassed by the heavy and wasteful hindrance of 
the Spanish tariffs. Official documents show that out 
of the twenty, or twenty-two millions of dollars of an- 
nual exportation into Cuba, fifteen millions are in pro- 
visions, fabrics, lumber, and materials which one or the 
other of the United States could better supply than any 
other country, but through the multitude of taxes and 
restrictions imposed by European policy, not more than 
a third of it comes from the fields and factories of this 
country. The industrial classes here lose by this sys- 
tem the stimulus of ten millions a year — sufficient to 
employ and support forty thousand laborers — while the 
.Cubans only obtain, under these exorbitant imposts, 
about one half as much for their money as they would 
get in a free, fair market. 

Provisions for example, such as flour, salted meats, 
butter, and all the etceteras of American abundance. 



THE CUBANS. 197 

are imported into Cuba to the amount of nine millions 
of dollars annually, and all are loaded with duties that 
average 34 per cent., and what with delays, high ap- 
praisals, tonnage duties, local exactions, and retail 
taxes, cost more than double the just market price by the 
time they reach the table of the consumer. American 
flour from American ships pays a duty of $10,50 a bar- 
rel to " protect" the inferior article from Spain, and in 
consequence, none but the rich in Cuba can afford to 
eat good wheat bread ; while in open family reciprocity, 
American agriculturists would yearly be called upon to 
supply a million barrels of flour to its 1,200,000 inhab- 
itants. 

New England is not less concerned in unbinding this 
trade, for besides the nine millions which should be paid 
to the farmers of this country, and the two millions in 
metals, implements, and machinery, which of right 
should float to her from down the Ohio and Mississippi, 
Cuba annually requires cotton and woolen fabrics, and 
ready-made furniture and apparel, to the invoice value 
of three millions more, all of which New England 
looms and mechanics should create. Fifteen millions 
are therefore imported into Cuba which the citizens in 
the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural states 
should supply, and which the ships of the commercial 
section should convey ; and this mass of needful food, 
raiment, furniture, and implements for house and land, 
when broken up in detail, and overwhelmed at each step 
with fresh impositions, do not cost the Cubans less than 
thirty millions of dollars. 

By reason of this system of preventions, the ship- 
ping interest can only employ 476,000 tons in a j^ear 
in this trade, for which it pays $1,50 a ton duty to Spain 
— while it would find advantageous service at once for 
a million of tons, if the ports of the island were free to 
this country. 

This brief outline of the domestic and pecuniary in- 
ducements to annexation is based on official data, and 



198 CUBA AND 

it is kept within the mark for the convenience of using 
round numbers. From this it may be deduced whether 
the United States would gain or lose by the accession 
of Cuba. 

On the other hand, with a multiplied population, 
with all her fountains of wealth open, with all her ele- 
ments of prosperity developed, who can fix the limits 
to the benefits which will arise to Cuba, to America, and 
to the United States 1 

In conclusion, it must not be understood that the an- 
nexation of Cuba to the United States is advocated, 
without regard to the rights of Spain, merely because it 
would be advantageous on both sides. As between Spain 
and Cuba, the former has forfeited every right to her 
supremacy over the latter. This, however, does not jus- 
tify an unlawful interference on the part of the United 
States. But this country must look to it, when the 
island shall become free from Spanish dominion — an 
event to take place speedily — that, in the words of the 
late distinguished ex-President, John Quincy Adams, 
" Cuba does not fall into the hands of any other Eu- 
ropean power." 

It is the natural right — it is the solemn duty of the 
United States to watch over the interests of Cuba. The 
present captain-general has threatened to emancipate 
and arm the African slaves in case of the least movement 
on the part of the Cubans. Who can regard with any 
thing but horror this most outrageous, most fiendish avow- 
al 1 Would the United States permit this 1 Dare the 
United States permit this ? Who can look back to the 
enormities and awful excesses of St. Domingo, and hes- 
itate for an answer 1 W^hat, then, is to be done 1 Cu- 
ba will undertake her freedom, and that speedily ; the 
captain-general will be proud to make good his threat, 
and what then ? It is with a shudder that this picture 
is contemplated ; but the struggle is close at hand, and 
cannot be delayed. 

There is one method by which all the difficulties and 



THE CUBANS. 199 

perplexities attending the Cuban question can be avoid- 
ed ; by which Cuba shall be free, and Spain content ; 
by which Cuba shall join the United States, and Eng- 
land have no cause to complain ; by which an entire 
revolution shall be effected in the island, and no blood 
be spilled. 

One method there is by which all this may be accom- 
plished, viz., the purchase of Cuba from Spain by 
the United States. Applying carefully what has been 
said in the preceding pages ; as to the advantages result- 
ing to the island and to the Union by the incorporating 
of the former into the latter, and the inadequacy of 
Spain to hold her colony longer in subjection ; to the 
question whether it is not best for Spain to sell, and 
the United States to purchase Cuba, no one can hesitate 
for a decision. 

On the cabinet at Washington, with the President 
at their head — on Congress assembled there — a heavy 
responsibility rests. It is in their power by a firm but 
prudent, a just but conciliating course, to save a peo- 
ple from the conflict of a revolution, which is certainly 
close at hand — a revolution bloody and desperate from 
the nature of the elements which shall compose it — and 
place them on an equal footing with the states of the 
confederacy, while, at the same time, they protect Spain 
by paying for a colony which would otherwise be abso- 
lutely lost to her. 

That negotiations may be successfully carried through 
which shall have this consummation for their object, 
should be the devout prayer of the philanthropist. 



Map; showing the relative situation of Cuba, and other West India Islands, and dif- 
ferent parts of the United States. 




APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX 



No. I. 

Cuba, the largest of the greater Antilles extends 
from Cape Mayzi on the east to Cape St. Antonio on 
the west, in a curved line of 790 miles. It is 117 
miles wide, in the broadest part, from Cape Maternillos 
Point on the north to the western point of Mota Cove 
on the south, twenty-one miles east of Cape Cruz. 
The narrowest part of the island is' twenty-two miles, 
from the mouth of Bahia del Mariel on the north to 
the Cove of May ana on the south. From Havana to 
Batabano it is twenty-eight miles. Near the centre of 
the island, the breadth north and south is about seven- 
ty-five miles. 

The periphery of the island, following a line the less 
tortuous, and cutting the bays, ports, and coves at their 
mouth, is 1719 miles, of which 816 are on the north, 
and 903 on the south. Its area is about 55,000 square 
miles ; and taking into the estimate the adjacent islands 
or keys which belong to it, it is 64,000 square miles. 

The form of the island is exceedingly irregular, ap- 
proaching that of a long, narrow crescent, the convex 
portion of which looks toward the arctic pole. Her 
situation in regard to said pole is nearly from east by 
south, to west by northwest. It is the most westerly of 
the West India Islands, and her western part is placed 
advantageously in the mouth of the Mexican Gulf, 
leaving two spacious entrances, the one to the north- 



204 APPENDIX. 

west 124 miles wide, between Point Hicacos, the most 
northerly of the island, and Point Tancha or Cape Sa- 
ble, the most southerly of East Florida. The other 
entrance into the Galf to the southwest is ninety-seven 
and a half miles in its narrowest part, between Cape 
St. Antonio of Cuba, and Cape Catoche, the most sa- 
lient extremity of the peninsula of Yucatan. From 
Cape Mola or St. Nicholas in the island of St. Do- 
mingo, the eastern extremity of Cuba, or Mayzi Point, 
is separated by a channel forty-two miles wide. 

From Mayzi to great Enagua, the nearest of the 
Lucayas or Bahama Islands, the distance to the north- 
east is forty-five miles. From Point Lucrecia, in 
Cuba, to the most easterly point of the great Bank of 
Bahama in the old Bahama channel, called Santo Do- 
mingo's Key, thirtj'-four miles. From Punt a del In- 
gles^ on the south of Cuba, to the nearest point of the 
northern coast of Jamaica the distance is seventy-five 
miles. 

Cuba contains the following ports on the north,* 
viz. : Guadiana, Bahia Honda^ Cabana, Mariel, Ha- 
vana^ Matanzas, Cardenas, Sagua la Grande, San 
Juan de los Remedios, Guanaja,t JVuevitas, Nuevas 
Grandes, Manati, Puerto del Padre, Puerto del Man- 
gle, Jibara, Jururu, Bariai, Vita, JVaranjo, Sama 
Banes, JVipe, Leviza, Cabonico, Tanamo, Cebollas, 
Zaguaneque, Zaragua, Taco, Cuyaguaneque Navas, 
Maravi, Baracoa,t and Mata : thirty-seven in all. 

On the south, Batiqueri, Puerto Escondido, Guan- 
tanamoj Santiago de Cuba, Mota, Manzanillo, Santa 
Cruz, Vertientes, Masio, Casilda, Jagua, Ensenada 
de Cortez, and Ensenada de Cochinos : thirteen in all. 

* Those marked with italics are spacious bays, affording anchor- 
age to shi{)s of the line. 

t This was the first place on the island visited by Columbus, Octo- 
ber 28rh, 1492. 

t This was the first town built on the island by the Spaniards, 
uiider Diego Velasquez, in the year 1511, and till 1522 was reckoned 
the capital. 



APPENDIX. 205 

There are besides some other anchorages, good for 
small vessels. It must be observed with astonishment, 
that a great many of these fine harbors are deserted, 
without a single fisherman's hut. 

The climate of the island cannot be more pleasant, 
as well in spring as in winter. In the latter prevails 
what we call la seca, dry weather. The rainy season 
begins in May, and continues until November. 

The annexed tables of the rates of Fahrenheit's 
thermometer, will afford an illustration of the almost 
uniform temperature of the climate of Cuba. 



deg. mm. 



77 


00 


82 


00 


70 


00 


74 


00 


62 


30 


80 


30 


84 


00 


64 


00 



MEAN TEMPERATURE. 

Mean temperature of the year at Havana and northern 
part, near the sea, _ - _ _ 
" " at Havana the warmest month, 

" " " the coldest month, 

*' ** in the interior for the year, where 

the land rises from 600 to 1050 
feet above the level of the sea, - 
** ** in the coldest month, _ _ _ 

** ** for the year at Santiago de Cuba, - 

** ** for the warmest month, 

** " for the coldest month, - - - 

EXTREME TEMPERATURE. 

deg. min. 

At Havana it is cold when at - - - - - 70 00 
The coldest day at Havana has been - - - - 60 30 
The warmest day " " - - - - 92 00 

In the interior, the thermometer many times has sunk 

to 53 00 

And even to - - - - - - - - 50 00 

In the grottos and caves near St. Antonio and Beitia, and 

on the Chorrera Creek, - - - - - 71 30 

In a well at the depth of 300 feet, - - - - 77 00 

The vegetable soil of the island may be said to rest 
almost universally on one great mass of calcareous 
rock, of a porous and unequal character. (Seborucos 
or Mucara.'\ Near the middle of the northern coast, 



206 APPENDIX. 

a slaty formation is to be seen, on which the calcareous 
rock seems to rest. 

As to the fertility of the land in Cuba, little can be 
said which may be new, it being so well known that it 
is almost proverbial. An area of 65,000 square miles, 
equivalent to nearly 34,560,000 acres, the greater part 
of which are of the first quality for cultivation, and a 
great portion of them still remain uncultivated, are 
circumstances which offer to every emigrant fond of 
labor, a vast field to exert his efforts in, and the pros- 
pect of a very brilliant reward. 

With respect to the salubriousness of the country, 
it is usually remarkable, and particularly so in the in- 
terior of the island. It is certain that in the largest 
towns situated near the coasts, during the intense heats 
of the summer season, it is usual for the yellow fever 
to make its appearance ; but besides this being not, as 
it formerly was, a mortal disease, thanks to the actual 
improvements in medicine, its attacks are almost surely 
avoided by observing a good hygienic regimen. 

The population of Cuba does not correspond to its 
area, nor to the infinite advantages offered by its climate 
and its riches, nor to the time since which it was con- 
stituted a colony. 

The statement on the following page was made out in 
accordance with the official accounts and census of the 
government of Cuba. 

From that statement it appears that the white pop- 
ulation of the island has only increased in five years, 
in 747 6 individuals, while that of the colored people 
has decreased, in the same space of time, in 116,348 
individuals, of which 3612 belong to the free class. 



APPENDIX. 



207 





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208 APPENDIX. 

Population of some of the principal cities and towns on the 
island, according to the census made in 1841 and in 1846. 









1841. 


1846. 


Increaee. 


Decrease. 


Havana - 


_ 


_ 


137,498 


106,968 




30,530 


Puerto Princii 


pe 


. 


24,034 


19,168 




4,866 


Santiago de Cuba 


- 


24,753 


24,005 




748 


Guines 


- 


- 


2,515 


2,612 




912 


Matanzas 


- 


- 


18,991 


16,986 




2,005 


Cardenas 


- 


- 


1,828 


3,103 


1,275 




Cienfuegos 


- 


- 


2,437 


4,324 


1,887 




Trinidad 


_ 


- 


12,718 


13,222 


464 




Villa Clara 


- 


- 


6,132 


5,837 




295 


Santi Spiritus 


_ 


- 


9,484 


7,424 




2,060 


St. Juan de los Remedios 4,313 


4,106 




207 


Nuevitas 


- 


- 


1,352 


1,222 




132 


Manzanillo 


- 


- 


3,299 


3,780 


481 




Bayamo 


- 


- 


7,480 


4.778 




2,207 


Holguin 


, 


- 


4,199 


3,065 




1,132 


Baracoa 


- 


- 


2,605 


1,853 




732 



The natural riches of the island are immense, many- 
resources of which still lie unexplored. Sugar, to- 
bacco, and coffee are the three principal branches 
which have hitherto absorbed, and will continue to 
command, the united efforts of industry and capital, as 
long as the increase of population shall require no other 
veins, which though less important are still rich and 
productive. 

In her vegetable kingdom she need envy none. The 
catalogue of her indigenous alimentary plants is large, 
to say nothing of exotics. In grains, excluding coffee, 
she has rice, corn, and wheat ; also, every va.riety of 
vegetable ; in roots, the name, the yuca, the boniato, 
the malanga, the sagu, the ararut, etc. (all indige- 
nous), besides potatoes, onions, and garlic ; and others 
of the horticultural class. 

The different varieties of fruit-trees are very nume- 
rous, as in all tropical climates. Pla.ntains, orange- 
trees, pines, and lemons, in great variety, cocoa-nuts, 
all these are well known and esteemed in the United 



APPENDIX. 209 

States ; but could the following reach this market, they 
would be no less appreciated, the anon, the zapote, the 
mamey, the guanabana, the guyaba, and other varie- 
ties, not including wildings. The pasturages are ex- 
tensive, abundant, and perennial. 

Cuba is well provided with the best qualities of 
building timber ; among which are the acana, the ju- 
caro, the oak, cedar, etc. In valuable woods the isl- 
and no less abounds ; fustic and brazil-wood for dying, 
is a principal source of wealth, in the eastern division. 
With regard to other varieties of the vegetable king- 
dom, the following paragraph from a recent number of 
a periodical of the island, will throw some light : 

" Many persons believe that various natural pro- 
ductions imported into the island of Cuba (and for 
which we pay so exorbitantly), could not be raised 
here to advantage. It is an error, since we now have 
before us a piece of a cinnamon-tree which has the 
same smell, color, and taste as the imported, and yet 
is the product of a plantation in the jurisdiction of 
Santiago de Cuba. On the same soil may be seen 
nearly all the fruits of Europe and Asia, including 
cloves, oregano, and pepper." 

The medicinal plants also are in great abundance, 
and are very efficacious. 

The riches of the mineral kingdom have hitherto not 
been sufficiently explored, to make known their extent. 
Copper mines are now being worked to great advan- 
tage, in the Eastern Department ; they are also found 
in all parts of the island, as had been proved by re- 
searches in the neighborhoods of Matanzas, Villa Clara, 
Cienfuegos, etc. Only a few months ago, a rich mine 
of lead with silver was discovered which promises to 
be very profitable. In the Western Department there 
are rivers (such as the Arcos or Cuevas de San An- 
tonio), which deposit on their banks that same sand of 
native gold, in search of which thousands are now 
flocking to the distant shores of California. 



210 APPENDIX. 

Coal is also found in the neighborhood of Havana 
and in other parts of the island ; and with the produce 
of Guanabacoa, steamships have always been supplied. 

On all the coasts of Cuba, principally on the north- 
ern, are found immense deposits of salt, which would 
open a profitable fountain to labor and industry, were 
it not for the exorbitant duties imposed by the gov- 
ernment, levying a tax of ^2,50 per fanega (200 lbs.) 

There is also an abundance of sulphur, loadstone, 
granite, clay, flint, crystal, and marble. This latter 
is one of the principal branches of wealth, in the Isle 
of Pines, where the quarries of O'Donnel have been 
worked to great advantage. 

The animal kingdom is not less prolific. Exquisite 
fish abound on all the coasts, rivers, and streams ; an 
endless variety of wild fowl people the groves and 
lakes ; the luxurious vegetation of the soil affords am- 
ple nourishment to immense flocks and herds, which 
multiply abundantly in the meadows and inclosures. 



APPENDIX. 211 



No. II. 

The following statement comprehends the details 
relative to those articles of commerce which by their 
value as branches of the public wealth in the United 
States, and by their large consumption in the island of 
Cuba, are of the highest mercantile importance, and are 
of great interest to all the industrial classes, agricul- 
tural and manufacturing as well as commercial. The 
details are given of the duties with which each of these 
articles are burdened by the tariff of the government of 
Cuba, the mode of valuation so exaggerated as to double 
and triple the amount of the duties, etc., etc. 

Summary of the importation of certain articles that have a 
large consumption in Cuba, produced by the United States ; 
to which is added a classification of the prices on which they 
are valued by the tariff of Cuba, and the duties charged on 
them : 



Joist or scantling, per 1000 feet, 


- $20 




per cent. 

27i 


Tar, per bbl. 


- 3 




do. 


Ploughs, each _ _ _ _ 


- 6 




do. 


Rice, per qq. 


- 6 




33i 


Morocco, per doz. - - - - 


- 7 


50 


do. 


Codfish, qq. lbs. - - - - 


- 3 


50 


27^ 


Plaids, Scotch, not exceeding 38 inch., pei 


t-yd. 


25 


33 


Trunks, leather, each - - _ 


- 8 




33 


" covered with hide - 


- 4 




33^ 


Flannels, coarse, 6-4 yd., per yd. 


- 


31 


do. 


" " to 58 in width, per yd. 


- 


50 


do. 


Hogsheads, each - - - _ 


- 2 




274 


Hogshead shoolis - - - - 


- 1 




do 


Half boots, pair - - - - 


- 3 


50 


S3i 


Boots, " - . - _ 


- 5 




do. 


Brass, manufactured, qq. 


- 37 


50 


33 


Mackerel, per bbl. - - - - 


- 4 50 


27i 


Geldings, each - - - - 


- 150 




33i 



12 • APPENDIX. 










Copper boilers, qq. 


. 


. 


- $37 50 


per cent 

27i 


Settees, wood, each 


« 


- 


- 10 




33i 


Negro cloths, per yd. 


- 


- 


- 3 




do. 


Preserved meats, per Ir.. - 


_ 


- 


- 


50 


do. 


Salt beef, per bbl. - 


- 


- 


- 9 




do. 


Pork, 


- 


- 


- 14 




do. 


Willow wagons, each 


- 


- 


- 12 




do. 


Carts, " 


- 


- 


- 100 




do. 


Straw wagons, " 


- 


- 


- 4 




do. 


Hogs, live, " 


- 


- 


- 10 




do. 


Baskets, " 


- 


- 


- 1 




27i 


Copper nails, per qq. 


- 


- 


- 25 




do. 


Copper, manufactured, per qq. 




- 


- 37 50 


33^ 


Russia sheeting, ordinary, per 


yd. 


- 


- 


06^ 


do. 


Cabs, gigs, etc. 




- 


- 400 




do. 


Bureaus, each 


- 


- 


- 25 




do. 


Small bureaus, 


_ 


- 


- 12 


50 


do. 


Cotton rope or cord, per piece 


- 


- 


- 


061 


do. 


Staves, per 1000 


- 


- 


- 25 




do. 


Floor matting, per yd. 


- 


- 


- 


25 




Oakum, per qq. 


- 


- 


- 4 




331 


Fringe, cotton, per piece - 


- 


- 


- 1 




do. 


" silk, per yd. 


- 


- 


- 


25 


do. 


Flannels, " 


- 


- 


- 


21 


do. 


Blankets, each 


_ 


_ 


- 1 


25 


do. 


Corn meal, per bbl. 


- 


- 


- 5 




do. 


Flour, " duty, $10 


50 










Sugar moulds, per doz. - 


- 


- 


- 6 




do. 


Soap, per bbl. 


- 


- 


- 2 




do. 


Cordage, per qq. 


- 


- 


- 12 




do. 


Pianofortes, each 


- 


- 


- 300 




27i 


Bricks, per 1000 


_ 


_ 


- 6 




33h 


Valise, leather, each 


- 


- 


- 6 




do. 


" for horsemen, each 


- 


_ 


- 2 




do. 


Cotton shawls, per doz. - 


- 


- 


- 4 


50 


do. 


Silk " ordinary, each 


_ 


- 


- 2 




27i 


Stockings, cotton, per doz. 


- 


- 


- 3 


50 


33h 


" wool, " 


_ 


. 


- 4 




do. 


Merino, not exceeding one yard wide 


- 


37 


do. 


Tables, card, one leaf 


- 


. 


- 10 




do. 


" " two leaves, - 


_ 


_ 


- 12 




do. 


Caiidlewick, per arr. 


_ 


_ 


- 6 


25 


do. 


Cotton handkerchiefs, per doz 


, 


- 


1 


75 


do. 


Potatoes, per bbl. - 


- 


- 


- 2 


50 


27i 



APPENDIX. 213 



Ruled paper, not exceeding 26 inches 
" white, " " " 

" letter 

Shot, per qq. _ - > - 

Powder, " _ - - - 

Oars, per 100 ft. - 
Bags, per doz. - - 

Silk sewing thread, per lb. 
Napkins, per doz. - - - - 
Mahogany chairs, per doz. 
Maple u a _ . 

Ordinary u u _ _ 

Saddles 

Hats, each _ - - - - 
Boards, pine, per 1000 - - - 
" maple, «* - _ _ 
Shingles, " 

Sperm candles, per qq. - 
Tallow " u _ . . 

Shoes, men's or boys', per doz. 

Summary of the articles of importation charged with duties, 
the way in which they are taxed, and those which are free. 

The duty of 33^ per cent, is imposed on 824 articles. 

27i " " 1908 " 

2 to 7i » " 13 " 

Free from duties - - - - - 25 " 

IS^ The articles not valued, nor precisely taxed by the tariff, 
are appreciated discretionally, and charged with duties accord- 
ing to the prices assigned to them. 

This document alone, if examined with attention, 
will be sufficient to demonstrate plainly the innumerable 
and grave injuries which the producing classes of the 
United States, a.nd the consumers of Cuba, suffer by 
the colonial system of Spain, which can find no better 
means for filling the royal coffers than multiplying the 
impost with which it fetters, if it does not annihilate, 
the commerce of its rich colony. 



$6 


per ceni 

33i 


5 


do. 


8 


do. 


2 50 


do. 


5 


27^ 


18 


do. 


6 25 


do. 


2 25 


do. 


3 


do. 


75 


33i 


50 


do. 


31 


do. 


15 50 


do. 


17 


do. 


3 


do. 


20 


27i 


25 


do. 


3 75 


do. 


32 


do. 


12 


do. 


15 


33^ 



214 APPENDIX. 



No. III. 

Reply to a pamphlet^ entitled^ " Thoughts on the An- 
nexation of Cuba to the United States, by Don 
Antonio SacOy^^ addressed to him by one of his 
friends. 

Preceded by applause from a quarter whence the 
productions of Saco had never before obtained it, we 
have seen a pamphlet entitled " Thoughts," etc., the 
work of the distinguished Bayamere, who is the honor 
and pride of his country. It would be needless to dis- 
semble the pain experienced by the truly Cuban party, 
on seeing voluntarily and spontaneously separated from 
their ranks a man of so high value, and still more 
painful must it some day be to Saco, to find that the 
prophetic part of his paper is marked by the same 
fallacy which more than once has accompanied his po- 
litical annunciations. Happily for the eventual fate 
of Cuba, it is not dependent on the opinions of any 
one man, howsoever high his authority may stand, and 
least so of those of one who, notwithstanding his genius 
and acquirements, is controlled by blind fanaticism. 
Linked, as the fate of Cuba is, with that of the for- 
tunate people who surround her, relying on the pro- 
gress of republican institutions, and on the philanthro- 
pic cosmopolitism of the neighboring commonwealths, 
and on the American beneficent policy contrasted with 
that of Europe, which is tyrannical in its exercise in 
this hemisphere, she will fulfill her destiny notwith- 
standing the only obstacle, exercising a moral influ- 
ence, as yet presented in its path, which is the pam- 
phlet of Mr. Saco. 

Before continuing in this ungrateful task, I wish to 



APPENDIX. 215 

acknowledge the embarrassment I experience on ac- 
count of the inequality of a contest with one enjoying 
a European name as a writer ; the strength of my con- 
victions, and the urgency and gravity of the subject, 
must be my excuse. 

Of a certainty, the friends of the . unfortunate Saco 
will not be the ones to accuse him of receding in his 
views through apostasy, or of staining his honorable 
career by being sold to any party. The explanation 
of his conduct is much more natural and in harmony 
with himself, and it will appear altogether so if we 
first examine what constitutes ultra radicalism in Eu- 
rope and democracy in America. 

During the past twenty years the political passions 
of the European countries being calmed, and they all 
enjoying uninterrupted peace, the extreme ultra libe- 
ral banner, of a nature speculative rather than active 
or profound, adopted for its own in Europe the cause 
of the emancipation of the negroes ; and to this school, 
whose errors had always their origin in its fanaticism, 
Mr. Saco belongs. Its followers assumed, as a fact, 
the want of good faith on the part of the slaveholders, 
who demanded time and preparatory measures for a 
change in the condition of the slaves ; and in order to 
surmount their opposition, they always resisted the 
idea of colonial independence, because they understood 
that to secure prompt emancipation nothing could be 
more expedient than an authority distant, European, 
free from the influence of the colonists, and subject to 
that of the British government, and abolitionary dis- 
turbers of the Eastern Continent. Experience has 
shown the precision of this calculation ; violent eman- 
cipations have already taken place, or are expected in 
the several colonies governed from Europe, and in 
them property, the value of which depends on slavery, 
is constantly suffering from uncertainty and deprecia- 
tion. In the United States, on the contrary, the moral 
progress of the enslaved race, and of the legislation 



216 APPENDIX. 

which regulates the same,* is slow but certain, and the 
property of this nature does not exhibit in the market 
the absolute impossibility of being sold, or the unex- 
pected depression of value which affects them with us 
at each political transition of the metropolis. 

Let us now see what constitute the banners of pro- 
gress in the North American Republic. 

The democratic majority of the United States sup- 
ports political, religious, and commercial freedom, and 
believes in the philanthropic mission of their country 
to extend the same throughout this hemisphere ; and at 
the same time acknowledge that slavery is constitutional 
and beyond the reach of abolitionary cabal, but not 
beyond the moral influence of civilization which slowly 
prepares its peaceful termination. Such is, in my view, 
the expression of public opinion in the United States, 
of that opinion which, being the result of the contest of 
of parties, guides the acts of the government. The 
democracy of the South is distinguished by their wisdom, 
their daring, and the tenacity and address with which 
they exert their influence in the counsels of the nation, 
and defend their rights over their slave property. 

I would have wished to have succeeded in drawing 
the above sketch so as to explain the position in which 
Mr. Saco appears at this moment, and why he dislikes 
annexation to a government which does not assign an 
absolute importance to his negrophitism. We will 
now go on to examine his pamphlet. His opposition to 
annexation is founded on his regret for Cuban nation- 
ality^ which would become extinct, and on the dangers 
attending the change, although he acknowledges the 
material advantages which would result from the act.f 

The His2:)ano- Cuban nationality should be adorned 

* The greater part of the a.-^perity of the Code Noir has disap- 
peared. — DehorCs Magazine, 1846. 

t This concession is very important, and quite distinct from wliat 
we read in the official gazette of Havana, wherein it is staled that 
the Ibuutains of wealth would be dried up by annexation. 



APPENDIX. 21T 

with the characteristics of Spanish. It should love its 
origin. It should reproduce its habits, glory in its 
historical remembrances — in the institutions and deeds 
of their people and of their government. As long as 
Cuba be a colony, can the spirit of national unity be 
aroused without laws, or institutions, or public life, 
or political dignity? Can we glory in any thing simi- 
lar to that which despoils and oppresses us ? Can it 
be that the establishment of a Cuban nationality for 
the future, requires of us to preserve the dependence 
which is physically and morally ruining us 1 — that is 
to say, the present political system ! Can we expect 
from an ignominious school of progressive degradation 
noble and generous effects '? Will it be said that Spain 
will follow the impulse of the age — granting, in imita- 
tion of the other European powers, institutions to Cuba, 
and that by this means another sentiment of Cuban 
nationality will be nourished 1 I answer that this is 
morally impossible. Spain, or rather the cabinet of 
Madrid, will ever keep the only order of things advan- 
tageous for the ministers. To give institutions to 
Cuba is to put a limit to fiscal demands, to the inex- 
haustible mine of grants and monoplies ; to the security 
of favorite claimants on the treasury ; to the monopoly 
of flour, and of the Spanish flag. To give institutions 
is to invite emigration of the white population of other 
countries, to establish militia, and to put a stop to 
that uninterrupted outpouring of forced recruits, who 
impoverish Spain at home without insuring her domin- 
ion here. To give institutions is to open the eyes of 
the Europeans as well as of the Creoles, and to inform 
the industrious and honest class, no matter where they 
are from, that the fruit of their labor disappears under 
the irresponsible rule of the officials of government. 
To give institutions is to do away with the economical 
obstacles which impede the agricultural development 
of Cuba. It is thereby to give her the means to com- 
pete with all countries producing sugar, and to raise 
10 



218 APPENDIX. 

her to that position which is her due in this hemisphere. 
To give institutions is to secure slave property, and to 
improve the condition of the slaves which is the imme- 
diate consequence of that security. Lastly, to give 
institutions to Cuba is to substitute relations of recipro- 
cal advantages for the tyranny of the strongest, thereby 
making the metropolitan court indifferent in holding 
the reins of the government. 

Is there an}" one of these effects of institutions which 
is not opposed to the policy on which Spain grounds her 
dominion 1 When all the officials employed, or, if you 
please, the participators in the spoils of the island, 
unite in praising the liberality and the advantages of 
the present system, is there any sense in anticipating 
change or reform ? What less could be expected from 
a government having some self-respect, not merely for 
the weal of the American subjects, but to preserve the 
unity of the administration of distant provinces, and 
to consolidate their dependence, than the establish- 
ment of a colonial ministry 1 This was the only re- 
quest of the Cubans in their paper published in Madrid, 
under the title of the Observador (de Ultramar), edited, 
with courtesy and talent, by Senor de Armas. Was 
the object attained ? If this demand, which was useful 
to the Spanish nation, was not granted because it was 
opposed to the personal advantages of the several mem- 
bers of the cabinet, what can be expected with refer- 
ence to such as are solely to benefit the colonies, how- 
ever equitable and just they may be ? 

Were it possible to give birth to a Hispano-Cubau 
nationality, the first step to be taken should be to blot 
out the past, above all, the most recent, acts of the 
Spanish administration — those from whence can be in- 
ferred what is to be expected in future. To forget the 
policy which subjects, the administration which de- 
stroys, the barbarous cruelty which despoils and insults, 
and then to bring to mind the glories of ancient Spain, 
and awaken the love to our ancestors innate in the heart 



APPENDIX. 219 

of man, would be the true, the only course. Without 
the previous separation, there is no hope of political re- 
form, and while oppression is weighing upon us, the 
patriotism of the Cubans will only dwell upon grievan- 
ces and bitter recriminations. To preach another phi- 
losophy, is not to know the spring of the human heart, 
" Because the eternal laws written hy nature in the 
heart of man (Mr. Saco's own words) prohibit that we 
should love the tyrant that oppresses ; no, not even if 
he be our own father J^ But take away from the 
Spanish Creole the weight of his political degradation, 
and the obstacles curtailing the fruits of his industry, 
and he will be observed, as it has happened in South 
America, to turn his eyes to the land of his forefathers, 
and to press to his heart sacred ties which, on the basis 
of equality, cannot vilify him. Spanish America after 
her independence, and Louisiana after her annexation 
to the United States, gave testimony to this yearning 
of the Americans toward the European races from 
whence they derived their origin. 

The last-named country has so many points of re- 
semblance and contact with our island, and its history 
so fully contradicts the inferences of Mr. Saco, that it 
has seemed to me the most victorious refutation, to lay 
before him facts which are something more than ground- 
less prophecies. Forty-five years are now elapsed 
since the First Consul sold Louisiana. Has her French 
nationality been forgotten 1 Have French habits, cus- 
toms, and tastes been lost ? Has even the trade with 
their ancient metropolis become diminished ? We read 
in Marbois' history, written twenty years after the 
purchase, that the commerce between Louisiana and 
France had swelled to ten times what it had been with 
the colon}^ " Our commerce of import," said the min- 
ister of commerce, in his report to the French chambers 
in 1838, " however satisfactory in its development, 
ought to be more important yet, with a country where 



220 APPENDIX. 

two thirds of the population have preserved French 
habits and tastes." 

In our day, the domestic customs of Louisiana ; the 
manners of her inhabitants ; the public amusements on 
Sunday, which take place on that day in no other state 
in the Union ; the French theatre and opera, all testi- 
fy to the origin, and fondness for their ancient habits, 
of those citizens of the republic who are still French. 

Their laws, which have gathered the good of those 
of Spain and France, accommodating it to the type of 
the new institutions, written in French, and the whole 
sessions of their assemblies and courts, with the speeches 
uttered alternately in either language, all of which is 
published in French, equally testify. Louisiana's very 
history has just been given to the public by Monsieur 
Gallard (1846), in the language of their fathers ; on 
which subject the author says, " Je dirai done que 
sachant que la plupart de nos Louisianaises ne lisent 
guere Panglais, j'ai pense qu'en ecrivant la langue qui 
leur est familiere, elles seraient tentees par un senti- 
ment de curiosite de jeter les yeux sur les pages de 
cette histoire, et peutetre de les lire jusqu'aux bout," 
etc., etc. 

What else is this than the preserving of nationality, 
or at least of that part of the feeling which moves and 
satisfies the heart. Can it be said that the result will 
be different in Cuba ? Is it the intention to alarm the 
Spanish race with the word absorption ? Why will the 
Americans absorb a population of one million two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, when they did not do so 
with the seventy-six thousand inhabitants who peopled 
Louisiana in 1810 '? Can the circumstances of the 
time and of the soil be different 1 Let us see : scarce- 
ly had Louisiana become a part of the American con- 
federacy, when she was freed from the colonial ties 
which embarrassed her progress, and the quantity and 
fertility of the lands which the new government placed 
within the reach of speculators and settlers, and the 



APPENDIX. 221 

instantaneous appearance of her productions in the 
sugar market, make it evident that there existed great 
stimulants calculated to call American emigration, 
which are not to be supposed in Cuba in case of annex- 
ation ; first, because Oregon, California, New Mexico, 
and other free states, offer greater inducements to 
white emigrants, without the competition of the slave, 
nor the obstacles of the climate ; second, because we 
are not in possession of the immense tracts of land not 
appropriated, which were in abundance in Louisiana ; 
third, because Spanish emigrants would naturally find 
better reception among those of their race than for- 
eigners ; fourth, because among the various signs which 
Cuba has of constituting in herself a nation, not to be 
found in the. early history of that state, one is, the 
possession of vast capital of her own ; and scarcely 
would the rise be foreshadowed which the new institu- 
tions would give to landed property, when the resident 
capitalists of the Spanish Main would be the first to 
compete with foreigners in speculations of this nature.* 
Mr. Saco supposes that the peninsular Spaniards would 
abandon the soil of Cuba immediately after annexation. 
What took place in Louisiana, with the French ? 

The latter were in want, in America, of an asylum 
with the type of their nation, where the industry of 
man should be unfettered by legislation. The ma- 
gic of liberal institutions, therefore, produced its in- 
evitable effect. So far from abandoning their new 
country, the French settlers of the colony shared the 
advantages of the new rule, and when the insurrection 
of St. Domingo took place, a large number of the fugi- 
tive colonists, in preference to other dependencies of 
their government, found shelter and wealth in that 
reflection of their distant country. 

* " If I were to adjust the conditions," said Napoleon, while treat- 
ing for the sale of Louisiana, " on the value which those immense 
territories will have for the United States, the indemnification would 
be without limits." 



222 APPENDIX. 

The Spaniards on both hemispheres are, perhaps, 
the people who more seriously suffer from having be- 
gun their political reform in a selfish and speculating 
age, which sneers at warm enthusiasm and patriotism. 
Corruption and discouragement seem to be the insep- 
arable concomitant of the useless attempt at self-gov- 
ernment of the large Spanish family, both in Europe 
and in America. When a nation, like the island of 
Cuba, governed by its own laws, sheltered from the 
scourge of intestine commotions under the mantle of 
the American confederacy, were to present itself to 
the Spanish people, with their customs and habits, 
peaceful, prosperous, and free, who can doubt that 
from all America, and even from Spain, the sons and 
descendants of the latter would flock to the island, and 
that in the concurrence of European races, which con- 
stitute the emigration from the United States, the 
Spanish trunk would preserve the supremacy which 
appertains to it. America is the asylum of the op- 
pressed of all Europe, and the government of the 
Union, that which approaches most to perfection, by 
indefinitely diffusing enjoyments : her nationality is the 
practical realization of cosmopolitanism. The expan- 
sive views of her policy find no obstacle in the origin 
of her citizens. The Dutch peopled New York, the 
Swedes New Jersey and Delaware, the Germans Penn- 
sylvania, the French flew to South Carolina after the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes, and in Louisiana 
and Florida the French and Spanish still preserve the 
usages of their ancestors. The American citizen, 
therefore, signifies the participator, the admirer, and 
defender of free institutions, and this democracy prop- 
agating its principles, which has commenced to diffuse 
its breath through Spanish America, is chiefly com- 
posed of Europeans. Under the shade of the splendid 
tree of liberty, planted in the last century, by the per- 
secuted of the old world, all nationalities have flour- 
ished. Can it be that the Spanish race are the only 



APPENDIX. 22S 

one incapable of expansion, and regeneration, far from 
the vices, the exactions, and the privileges of despots 7 

Such is the extension that in these states has been 
given to the right of citizenship, and such the consequent 
political importance acquired by foreigners, that not 
many years ago a party came into existence called the 
Native Americans, who attempted to restrict the rights 
enjoyed by the former. This useless attempt, after 
having created great excitement, had to be given up, 
and the liberal policy became, if any thing, better 
established and secured, which had so much raised 
that people in the scale of nations. 

But Mr. Saco expresses fears on account of reli- 
gious belief, which we cannot comprehend, coming from 
him. Is Saco ignorant that the Catholic, Apostolic, 
and Roman religion has always existed in the United 
States, and is diffusing itself to a great extent ? Is he 
ignorant that the Catholic institutions of education and 
beneficence shine throughout the American Union'? 
Does he not know that the Catholic clergy presents in 
these states an example of unction, of wisdom, and of 
evangelic charity, which produces the most salutary 
effects on public morals ; or, peradventure, in order to 
preserve the national type, would he wish to preserve 
the scandal and the ignorance which are the distinctive 
traits of' the priests in Cuba, and even in Spain 1 In- 
fidelity, absolute indifierence to the truths of Chris- 
tianity, and looseness of the passions constitute the 
morality of which we take pride in boasting. Can it 
be that liberty of worship should appear foreign and 
in bad taste to Mr. Saco ? If that liberty has puri- 
fied Catholicity, and raised it to the noble station 
which it occupies in the neighboring republic, well 
might these advantages compensate the want of that 
exclusiveness in a religion without faith, having no 
object but the pecuniary advantages of its ministers. 

Does Mr. Saco imagine that foreign absorption would 
be the consequence of annexation? Let him reflect 



224 APPENDIX. 

that this important act has in itself no attraction to the 
emigrant ; outlets to be opened to the exertions and 
natural scope of the human mind, institutions, liberty 
in its various applications ; these are the stimuli which 
would induce the coming of the citizens of the neigh- 
boring republic. Let Cuba become a free republic 
and in that character open her doors to the whole hu- 
man race, and then such as would look for a home in 
her territory annexed to the United States, would equally 
ask for an asylum in her as an independent and free 
state. Can it then be objected that deprived of Ameri- 
can support, she would offer less security, stability, 
and, therefore, less inducement to the contemplated ab- 
sorption by the latter ? In that case, our better judg- 
ment would surely guide us not to sacrifice the peace 
and tranquillity of a people to the worship of nationality, 
to an idea which the tendencies of the times are fast 
blotting out for the benefit of humanity. The absorp- 
tion which so much harasses Mr. Saco, will take 
place, he asserts, by the peaceful workings of the ma- 
jorities, because the Americans will form a majority 
when we shall appear at the electoral urns. Let us 
examine what happened in the neighboring state, and 
every body may judge for himself on this fixed and sure 
theme. 

Eight years after the acquisition of Louisiana, its 
constitution was framed by a convention composed of 
forty representatives, of whom twenty-two were of. 
French origin, and in the meanwhile the Louisianians 
had been sustained and protected in the enjoyment of 
freedom and their religious worship and property, and 
the laws in existence under the preceding governments 
had continued in force, all in conformity to the treaty 
of the 30th of April, 1803. 

That constitution established the legislative power 
in two houses, senate and assembly. Every white 
citizen twenty-one years of age, and with property worth 
$500, and two years' residence in the state, could be 



APPENDIX. 225 

elected representative. Every citizen twenty-one years 
of age, paying taxes, had a right to vote after one year's 
residence. For senator, four years' residence in the 
state, twenty-seven years of age, and property worth 
$1000 were required. Under a similar constitution 
would the inducements raise foreign over native or 
Spanish influence 1 But the political importance of 
Cuba, and her present mercantile relations with the 
civilized world, would call for her instantaneous settle- 
ment and quiet, and the immediate formation of her 
constitution without even the short respite which inter- 
vened in that of Louisia'na. However great the inter- 
mediate emigration, it is idle to fear any other influence 
than that of our race would prevail in the establish- 
ment of the new government and the administration of 
the state. 

Mr. Saco says he would not fear the absorption if we 
had a million and a half of white population, instead of 
500,000, Let him consider that out of the 76,000 
inhabitants which Louisiana possessed, only 42,000 
were white, and, withal, that in the elections for the 
state department of 1843, the preponderance of the 
names of the ancient French families was yet preserved, 
while the whole population had swelled to six times 
their original numbers. 

Well may he therefore vote for annexation in the 
case which he alluded to, sufibcating in his breast, as 
he says, his national regrets. And in order to allay 
the intensity of his feelings, I will endeavor to revive 
before him some of the innovations which have been 
imposed upon Cuba since his absence from his native 
country. General Tacon, who, as Mr. Saco knows, 
commenced a series of encroachments on the rights of 
the Cubans, did not launch himself in that course 
which places the despotism of the sovereign in the 
hands of an irresponsible subaltern without some spe- 
cies of modesty, or some respect for public opinion. 
Not counting on the support of the ancient corporations 
10* 



226 APPENDIX. 

of the country, he convoked meetings of proprietors, 
where measures of safety were discussed, and where 
the establishment of new taxes was solicited, and only 
obtained on conditions which he did not accept. 

To commence from this one act, how great is the 
number which have followed, tracing the gradual usurp- 
ation of authority and contempt of Cuban rights. 
Not long since, with the single advice of one of the 
lieutenant-governors, the chief magistrate created a tax 
on the plantations for the support of jail prisoners, and 
this monstrous power, so varied in its attributes, was 
not at all embarrassed at having monopolized about the 
same time a profit on slaves judicially embargoed, which, 
had it been made available to the community, would 
have obviated the new impost in the very district where 
it was enacted. 

The junta of six individuals named by the cabinet 
to enact the special laws for Cuba, suspended their 
labors, which were never recommenced, because at 
whatever time they should act, they would be obliged 
to limit the authority of the chief. As time passes, 
and the class of officials become more accustomed to 
justify their encroachment, and the opportunities of 
being heard and attended in their requests are taken 
away from the colonists, does Mr. Saco see greater 
chances of the reforms coming from Spain ? 

The faculties of the corporations have been restrict- 
ed, and the filling up of their vacancies gradually 
made more dependent on the will of the captain- 
general. This has been done by means of royal orders, 
of secret requisitions, and of despotic acts. 

The Royal Court of Justice declared itself incompe- 
tent to take cognizance of the complaint made by the 
corporation of Matanzas of the depredations commit- 
ted by the troops during a fire, and the members of 
that body were fined and suspended from office by the 
captain-general. 

The new tithe recently imposed without the advice 



APPENDIX. 227 

of the corporation of the country, as was the case with 
former taxation ; the malice which has allowed a suit 
to be commenced against everj^ owner who had to prove 
his exemption from the same ; and the dark and corrupt 
dealings of the tithe gatherers, who enrich themselves 
on the sweat of the poor, on the economy of the weal thy, 
frequently defrauding the public treasur}^ as a price of 
their report, allowed to play a singular unjustifiable part 
in the regular proceedings of the law, these are some 
of the astonishing signs of progress. 

The liberality of the tariifs, since the ancient Con- 
sulado or Junta de Fomento has no consultive vote in 
the matter, is fast disappearing.* 

The monopoly in the localities for the sales of meat 
and fish, established by Tacon, of his own will, and 
which at once raised the price of those necessaries of 
life to eighty per cent, of their value, is still in exist- 
ence notwithstanding occasional conversations on the 
subject of their removal. f 

On the occasion of the perspective want and misery, 
announced in consequence of the hurricane of 1844, 
the local authorities ventured to reduce the import 
duties on American rice and corn, not meddling with 
wheat flour, in dread of the all-powerful interest of the 
commerce of Santander ; and these reductions were 
only granted for six months. A minister of finances 
was found who, before the expiration of the appointed 
time, ordered the suspension of the concession, and 
good faith toward foreign commerce was broken, and 

* In comparing tariffs of different epochs, we cannot judge by the 
rates alone ; the regularity and security of the contraband trade in 
times past, made their vaUiation and per centage duty in fact very 
moderate, and their effects very similar to that of free trade. 

+ Mr. Olozaza, the leader of the progressive party in Spain, proved 
in his defence of the corporation of Havana, that in the transaction 
of these sales, Tacon was moved by interested or pecuniary motives 
of a mysterious nature, never cleared before ihe public by that gen- 
eral. I intentionally quote the source, on account of the favorable 
piejudice in favor of the latter among a certain class of the Americatt 
public. 



228 APPENDIX. 

the sympathy toward the afflicted colonists was met 
with a sneer. 

The tedious course of obtaining personal licenses, 
and their price, have raised the charges on the citi- 
zens ; have added to the insolence of the subaltern 
officers of the police, while the revenue of the latter, 
and of the only legislator in the matter, has been 
greatly increased. 

The lottery which consisted of 17,500 numbers, has 
been raised to 37,500, and the drawings have likewise 
been increased. 

On General Valdez (who is generally acknowledged 
to be both liberal and enlightened in his views) being 
apprised that the Junta de Fomento were going to 
make a report on the depressed state of the island, he 
commanded the board, through the commissioners who 
had called to ask his approval of their purpose, that 
they should abstain from so doing ! 

That part of the revenue drawn from the products 
of the industry of the country to cover the salaries, 
fees, and perquisites of the military, political, a,nd civil 
officers of government, has been slowly and forever 
taken away from the native Cubans, and passed to the 
Europeans, who, by this cunning measure, deprive the 
families of the land of one of the most important 
sources of wealth and of influence in any community. 
If Mr. Saco could, by himself, examine the effect of 
this policy, in which the several rulers have united 
unhesitatingly, and if he would then compare the social 
importance that the Creoles had when he was on the 
island with that which they now possess — even those 
who from their hierarchy he supposes might lose by 
annexation, how well he would understand what con- 
stitutes a true absorption, founded on the injustice 
and despotism of the conqueror ! 

The prudence and skill of the rural by-laws are at 
an end, as well as their observance, since the consulado 
has no hand in the enacting of the same, nor do the 
planters look after their execution. 



APPENDIX. 229 

The reports of the above-mentioned board having 
been remarkable for their opposition to the African 
slave trade, the influence of the despotic chiefs, by art- 
ful efforts and threats easier to be understood than ex- 
plained, succeeded in introducing among the members 
speculators in the trade, and the result has been the 
first report decidedly opposed to white emigration which, 
in the present times, has emanated from that body. 

From the want of police, disquietude was introduced 
and increased among the colored race. 

Conniving at crimes and insubordinate acts of slav- 
ery, the venality of the officials and judges has been 
slowly nourishing the germ of servile insurrection. 

The atrocious method of investigating and repressing 
the slave conspiracy in 1844, the horrors and in efficacy 
of which is now acknowledged by all, demonstrated, 
beyond any possible doubt, how absurd it is to deprive 
the class of proprietors from participating in the ad- 
ministration and government of a slave country. 

The witchcraft and superstitious practices of the 
worship of savages, developed in the course of that 
frightful prosecution, discovered the hideous fact that 
not even the scant religious instruction which our fa- 
thers gave to their slaves, do our own receive, at pres- 
ent, at our hands. In truth, hardly can it be said that 
baptism is practiced ; marriage is daily becoming more 
scarce, and the heart of the wretched slave does not 
even receive the comfort of faith. 

The enactments regarding the colored people, con- 
tained in the by-laws of General Valdez, dangerous in- 
asmuch as not consistent Avith a system in which the 
proprietors are excluded from the administration and 
defence of the country ; the by-laws which, for the 
same class, were published by the last governor of Porto 
Rico, breathing cruelty and blood ; the subsequent laws 
of the same nature recently published by his successor, 
announcing freedom and emancipation, and, generally 
speaking, the relaxation of discipline in the manage- 



230 APPENDIX. 

ment of the free and enslaved blacks, which has been 
remarked in Cuba as either preceded or followed by 
excessive severit}^ or crueltj^, are so many means of 
keeping us alarmed, with which the abolitionists would 
desire ever to haunt the slave-OAvners, and which would 
not exist were the interested parties able to provide by 
themselves for the quiet and safet}^ of both. 

Without religious teaching, or political education, or 
the excitement of political ambition — without the light 
obtained by the interchange and freedom of thought, 
sordid motives of gain or a reckless routine has guided 
the actions of the agents of production ; and while the 
slave trade supplied, at a low rate, the hands de- 
manded by industry, it was found to be an insupporta- 
ble weight to accompany, in the assortment of slaves 
on a plantation, a corresponding number of women, or 
to give additional care to the latter during their preg- 
nancy, and their offspring after their birth : it has 
been also as bad business to take care of the sick, to 
prevent sickness, and to facilitate to the slaves the com- 
fort which the most miserable of them obtains for him- 
self as soon as he becomes free. It is by such a course 
that the friends of the African trade have succeeded 
in discrediting all essays of free labor, however par- 
tial, which have been heretofore attempted. Thus it 
is also that we may explain by what means the agri- 
culture of Cuba has been productive. Reducing the 
price of labor, encouraging the neglect of the most 
sacred duties of the master, the African slave trade 
has in reality been the source of wealth, and the rem- 
edy which the planters found to withstand the exces- 
sive burdens which press on our productions. If they 
lent a sympathizing ear to the impulses of their own 
heart, they failed to prosper ; cruelty and fortune they 
saw on one side, pity and ruin on the other. Let the 
responsibility of the results fall, not on the traders or 
cultivators who imported or acquired the slaves, but 
on those who over-taxed enterprise and industry, and 



APPENDIX. 231 

sanctioned that trade which demoralizes the people, 
and removes farther oif the regeneration of the negro. 
Here, then, lies the secret of the prosperit}^ and pro- 
gress of the island of Cuba ; here the ability of the 
administration. The island might have prospered 
much more without building its fortunes on piles of 
African victims, by preserving and augmenting the 
number of her slaves, by natural increase, by improving 
their morals, and enlarging the range of their comforts 
under a more liberal government, and with lighter tax- 
ation. These are the advantages to be expected from 
annexation. 

The efficacj^ of laws which are formed and executed 
Tinder the eye of public vigilance, and the advantage 
of a militia which, without the expense of an army, 
prevents disorders, gives to slave property in the 
United States a security unknown in Cuba, as easily 
seen in the contracts, and purchases of landed prop- 
erty in both countries, which is a true basis for judg- 
ing, not dependent on the principles or prejudices of a 
writer. 

From so well regulated an order of things follow, in 
a slave countrj^, the care of the mothers, of their off- 
spring, and of the sick ; the greater amount of indi- 
vidual liberty and comforts enjoyed by the slaves, and 
the mutual relations of confidence and affection be- 
tween the master and his bondman, which have thus 
far disappeared in Cuba. By the suppression of the 
African slave trade, during nearly half a century, the 
neighboring republic has obtained a rare exemption 
from superstitious, and ungovernable, and ferocious 
habits ; and, because more intelligent, they are less 
disposed to launch in insurrectionary attempts, which 
could, in the end, be mere vents of vengeance, always 
subject to inevitable and certain punishment. 

From what has been said it can be proved that it i?; 
impossible to regenerate and prepare the slave gradu- 
ally for any change in his condition, without the sup- 



232 APPENDIX. 

port of the owners. Abolitionism, sucli as we have 
seen, making war on property, may force a ruinous 
change, availing itself of the lever of the despotism of a 
metropolis ; hut it is only given to the quiet, undis- 
turbed authority of a sovereign state to produce grad- 
ual reform in slavery, without compromising the exist- 
ence of society. If this course appear too tardy for 
the impatience of the negrophilism of Europe, experi- 
ence ought to have convinced them ere this, of the 
obstacles which the contrary system brings to the 
wealth, peace, and morality of any community. As 
to Cuba, where the slave population is chiefly African, 
and where the white portion is not permitted to be 
armed and formed into militia for their defence, gene- 
ral safety is consequently insured through a thousand 
privations imposed on the slaves who, as it has already 
been remarked, are not favored with any religious Or 
moral instruction. There is therefore no country 
worse prepared for even the most distant announce- 
ment of emancipation, even in the opinion of abolition- 
ists. 

Free trade, which is another of the elements re- 
quired to facilitate greater comforts to the slave, and 
method and implements for labor, more advantageous 
and economical to enterprise, thereby rejecting toilsome 
practices, to which the slave is subjected — how can free 
trade, I say, be established, while all Spain, and Mr. 
Saco himself, are bent on encouraging Spanish indus- 
try and trade by means of the commerce of Cuba, viz., 
by protective duties, and by enhanced prices ? 

But the island of Cuba, annexed to the American 
Union, might adopt a course of decided progress, com- 
bining the extension of her agriculture and commerce, 
and the philanthropic reforms claimed by the age, with 
a sacred respect to property. We have seen, in these 
latter days, the official press of Havana, endeavoring to 
sketch a dark future for slavery in that confederacy, 
on the occasion of the excitement created by the ques- 



APPENDIX. 233 

tions of introducing the institution in the territories 
recently acquired. Doubtless, it is attempted to im- 
press on the Cuban public that the principle of non- 
interference in the domestic affairs of the several states 
is either attacked or threatened in this contest. It is 
therefore proper that the truth should be known as to 
what is contended for. The South, or the slave-holding 
states, hold that each one of these at the time of 
forming their constitution had the right to admit or 
reject the principle of the special iDstitution, and that 
the General Congress cannot anticipate, guide, or oppose 
this future act of a new sovereign state. To be suffi- 
ciently courageous, therefore, to raise a cry against the 
very general desire of limiting slavery, in spite of the 
tendencies of the times, is it not a proof of the vigor of 
the South, and of the fact that there is no country in 
the world where slave property is better sheltered from 
the assaults of abolitionism ? That which has been 
quoted as proof of the dangerous position of slavery, is 
it not what more decidedly proves the contrary ? Cru- 
elty and mystery (such as employed by the Spanish 
administration) are the weak arms of the pusillanimous 
— openness and energy, fronting our enemies, are the 
characteristics of a defence inspired by intelligence and 
conscious power. 

In order to appreciate better the advantages of an- 
nexation, I will continue to avail myself of the example 
of Louisiana. The primitive constitution of this state 
granted at once to the inhabitants of it the important 
right of habeas corpus, the judgment by jury in civil 
cases at the request of either of the parties, the privi- 
lege of giving bail in all prosecutions not involving 
capital punishment, and lastly, the judgment by jury 
in all criminal cases. 

" Twenty years of good government," said the dis- 
tinguished and first historian of Louisiana in 1829, 
" have effected what could not have been accomplished 
in centuries under the previous prohibitory system. 



234 APPENDIX. 

General and local interests have sprung up, an4 ad- 
vanced rapidly. The population, stationary, under an 
absolute government, has been trebled after the cession. 
* * * # After the last century, the Louisianians 
have better understood the wealth of the soil they 
possess. * * * ^ew Orleans, founded in 1707, 
after dragging a languid life during almost a century, 
by possessing a liberal sj^stem for twenty-five years, 
has already become one of the most flourishing cities 
of America. The great facilities in her intercourse 
with Europe have reduced the price of all merchandise 
which the colony receives from thence, and pays back 
in her crops of corn, cotton, and sugar.* 

" The lands of the interior," continues Marbois, 
" which were sold at the lowest rates under the French 
and Spanish rule, acquired a considerable value imme- 
diately after the cession. Ancient titles, forgotten 
during an age, were searched for with anxiety ; and 
then it was that in the archives of the French colony of 
Illinois, the descendants of Philip Renaud, found the 
documents of the large donation which the Mississippi 
Company had granted to their ancestor." 

Such is the vital impulse given by institutions, that 
the sugar lands of Louisiana, though exposed to a de- 
structive frost, though requiring periodical replanting, 
and alternate rest and manuring, still have a real 
value in the market superior to those of Cuba. 

The Louisianians, convinced of the immense advan- 
tages which annexation had brought to them, in Febru- 
ary, 1825, expressed, by a unanimous resolution of the 
house of representatives, " their veneration toward Mr. 
Monroe, and their gratitude for the part he had taken 
in the acts which united Louisiana to the American 
confederacy." 

* This was written twenty years ago ; what could be said now, 
when the Mississippi river brings to the Louisianians manufactures, 
grain, dry goods, and merchandise of all kinds, without a custom- 
house, or any other intermediate cost than a moderate freight ? 



APPEIfDIX. 235 

In the essay on the constitution of the United States, 
which precedes the history of Louisiana, already so 
much quoted, the author alludes to the formation of 
new settlements in the deserts, where families, assem- 
bled of their own accord, take the incipient steps in 
the infancy of their sovereignty. " They name their 
magistrates by themselves," he says, " and from dis- 
tricts and afterward from territories they become states. 
Until they acquire sufficient strength, it is necessary 
that Congress should guide and instruct these new com- 
munities and guard them against their own errors ; and 
as this authority is exercised solely for their good, it 
is very seldom that it meets with any obstacle. The 
new states which are formed exist by themselves, and 
for themselves. 

This independence and sovereign authority of the 
state is what Mr. Saco gives no indication of appreci- 
ating. Rarely is it that a stranger who has not ob- 
served closely the theory and practice of the American 
system, gives full value to the federal principle on which 
it rests, and which, while it unites all the states for de- 
termined objects, few in their number, and carefully 
explained in their nature, leaves untouched the equal 
and independent sovereignty which belongs to each, as 
also the absolute power to govern itself in all matters 
of internal administration and government, without in- 
terference on the part of another state, or even of the 
federal government. As a member in every respect 
equal to the rest in sovereign authority and independ- 
ence, Cuba, admitted into the confederacy, would at once 
take the rank which belongs to her in the political 
world, on account of her geographical and natural ad- 
vantages. From an humble and oppressed colony, 
trampled upon by oriental despotism, she would rise to 
be, like her sister republics, a nation within a nation, 
and for the first time would Cuban nationality, essen- 
tially Spanish in character, have an existence ; while 
she would unceasingly draw to herself, as we have al- 



236 APPENDIX. 

ready intimated, the best class of Spanish emigrants, 
both from the metropolis, and the great Spanish family- 
else where. Giving to this principle of state independ- 
ence, strictly adhered to in the United States, its true 
importance, could not Mr. Saco find, in annexation, the 
sure course to inspire life, activity, and character of its 
own, to the Cuban society? 

I believe I have demonstrated that love toward our 
ancestors can be preserved, and, in fact, better pre- 
served, purer and more noble, where it does not call 
for the sacrifice of our well-being ; and also with the 
precedent of Louisiana, that there is no ground to fear 
annihilation of Spanish influence, by the Americans, 
through annexation. From what has been said, it is 
also definitively established that, as a European depend- 
ence, Cuba can hope for neither quiet nor progress ; 
and lastly, that both can be reached by entering in the 
neighboring confederacy. 

If the sketch herein traced of the posture of things 
be true, if the dangers surrounding Cuba are to cease 
with annexation to the United States, does Mr. Saco 
suppose that the European residents on the island will 
wait till it be too late to save her ? They have given 
proofs of comprehending the danger on several occa- 
sions, one of them very recent.* It is true that late 
events in Europe, comparatively of a peaceful tenden- 
cy, have served the views of our rulers, who take ad- 
vantage of the love of their country to keep the old 
Spaniards in uncertainty and anxious wavering. But 
pictures of security, oftentimes confidently drawn, to 
be as often suddenly efiaced, have excited misgivings 
and doubts, which are deeply rooted in the minds of 
the former. The industrious majority of them, which 
is not made up of the few who are conspicuously seen 

* In 1841, when the agreement was proposed by the British cabi- 
net to fiee the slaves ; later still, on the intended sale of the island 
by a progressive cabinet ; and lastly, at the time of the emancipation 
of the slaves in the French colonies. 



APPENDIX. 237 

surrounding the authorities, is identified in their inter- 
est with the Creoles. Both parties are aware of their 
relative position, without daring to breathe the truth ; 
they foreshadow the bond which is to bind them to- 
gether in the future. A day does not pass by without 
thoughts flashing through the minds of the sensible 
portion of either band, as to the necessity of being 
united, and placing themselves under shelter against all 
vicissitudes, by becoming annexed to the American 
confederacy. Perhaps love of free institutions has a 
deeper hold in the heart of the Spanish European ; per- 
haps a prejudice, a bare, frail wall is now separating 
their common interest and inclinations. 

But when the rulers of a land have no other reliance 
for support than what is founded on error, their posi- 
tion is a false one. When the only thing wanted for a 
whole people to take a determination is the propitious 
opportunity, this soon presents ; and what is in the 
minds of all, soon finds vent from thought to words and 
from words to action. The European Spaniards re- 
siding in Cuba know, just as well as the writer of these 
lines, that the sway of a distant metropolis is incom- 
patible with the free-trade principle and the well-being 
of the citizens ; that it must soon meet its terminus ; 
and that the advocates of despotism and monarchy are 
daily losing their number and enthusiasm. They know 
that when free trade is established, if their commercial 
privileges come to an end, the sailor monopoly and 
other restrictive laws will also cease, and the ship- 
owner will be the gainer, being enabled thereby to man 
his vessels with greater economy ; and the crews them- 
selves will be exempted from forced services to the 
crown.* They know that with this and similar advan- 

* England has likewise been obliged to disregard the clamor of her 
ship-owners — elevating by such means her mercantile marine in pro- 
portion as she took away privileges. " Protection," said her prime 
minister, " is the scourge of agriculture." We know that protectioa 
was the scourge of the manufactures of Spitalfields ; that it ruined 



238 APPENDIX. 

tages of liberty, and their previous connection with the 
population, the mercantile class now settled on the 
island will flourish more than under the protection and 
restrictions of the present legislation. These restric- 
tions, and not the want of activity and natural skill, as 
Mr. Saco thinks, are the cause of the backwardness 
of Spanish industry and commerce. What is wanting 
to those laborious and prudent men who, from Navarre, 
from Catalonia, from Arragon, from Galicia, from 
Andalusia, and from the whole of Spain, have come to 
this island, for their own advantage and that of their 
adopted country 1 What is wanting in them in order 
to extend and raise their commerce on a level with 
those who, with less toil, prosper on the borders of the 
Mississippi ? What else than the political influence 
within the reach of the obscurest individual in the 
neighboring republic 1 What but to feel the worth of 

our sugar colonies, and has given to Ireland misery in lieu of pros- 
perity. In a word, protection has been the destruction of objects 
to which it has been granted. Like a tree, it shelters from the tem- 
pest those whom it protects, but brings down on their heads the 
thunder of heaven. And why should our mercantile navy be the 
exception to this universal law ? Competition is the soul of skill. 
Those who never bear it are lazy and wanting in energy. They can 
neither avail of the example nor gain by the knowledge of others. 
To liberate men from competition, is to nail them on the ignorance 
of their fathers ; to subject them to it, is to place their capacfty to the 
test — it is to breathe into them energy and life, and to inspire them 
with ability. This should be equally applied to captains and sailors, 
and to ship-owners and other individuals. During the last seven 
years-— which terminated in 1823 — while the English navigation laws 
were in full vigor, the increase of the shipping amounted to five per 
cent. Then commenced a period of greater freedom ; and the year 
1842 shows an enormous increase, with this peculiar' circumstance, 
that the shipping employed in the colonial trade, still enjoying pro- 
tection, only augmented 67 per cent., while that engaged in foreign 
trade, under the reciprocity act, rose to 164 per cent. 

. 1823. 1842. Increase. 

Tonnage employed in commerce 

with British possessions - - 746,822 1,250,937 67 p. ct. 
Tonnage employed in commerce 

with foreign neutral countries 802,686 2,124,333 164 " 

[Economist, Nov. 27, 1847. 



APPENDIX. 239 

man and the respect due to every individual not actually 
convicted of some crime, even by the supreme head of 
the state. That democracy, independent and jealous 
of its own dignitj^, which the Biscayans practically 
possess, which the Arragonese hold consigned in their 
ancient laws, and which the Catalonians and Valen- 
cians carry stamped in their faces ; that democracy, the 
key to all the blessings of a nation, the path of which 
is quiet in America, because unobstructed by monarch- 
ical and retrograde ambitions — that is the ark of sal- 
vation for Cuba, and the bond of union for its inhabit- 
ants. Whenever it shall spring up and be understood 
there, the eloquent orators who shall better sustain its 
rights and immunities, will awaken the noble enthusi- 
asm and the applause which is now only bestowed on a 
Steffanoni and a Marini. How far more elevated will 
the place occupied by the Cubans then be among civil- 
ized countries ! 

Had Mr. Saco, when discussing the dispositions of 
the peninsular Spaniards, taken into account the 
annexation symptoms manifested by them on the dif- 
ferent occasions to which I have alluded, his opinion 
might command greater credit ; as it has reached us 
now, it too forcibly tells how long he has been away, 
and even novf how distant from his country. 

The manifest conformity,- however, existing between 
the material interest and secret opinions of the several 
parties in Cuba, temporarily smothered though it may 
be, based as it is on the undeviating and victorious 
progress of democracy in America, convinces me that 
to obtain annexation it will not be necessary to resort 
to arms. 

Peaceful in their habits, the Europeans, like the 
Creoles, will not launch into a fratricidal war, injuri- 
ous to their prosperity, solely to serve the class of offi- 
cials or the prejudices of commercial monopoty. An 
order of things only supported through injustice and 
an armed force, is naturally on the eve of overthrow. 



240 APPENDIX. 

Good sense and the intercourse witli our neighbors 
are doing wonders in the work of gaining partisans to 
pacific annexation, notwithstanding the ridiculous re- 
strictions put to the press, and to individual liberty 
and action. There is no excess of credulity, there- 
fore, in imagining that the Europeans, belonging to 
the industrious classes, will, on the first favorable op- 
portunity, advocate what is their interest in com- 
mon with all. The desire after freedom, impossible 
to satisfy white military despotism, exists ; and a hope 
to give security to slave property, and to dispel, with 
one blow, the dangers attending on the actual, forced 
dependence, have influenced the minds of the peninsu- 
lar Spaniards, and if the portion who speculate in 
offices, and office-holders, were not among them, they 
would have consummated the act of annexation them- 
selves ere now. 

As to the feeling among Creoles, Mr. Saco is sadly 
informed ; perhaps it is in the territory where he ima- 
gines annexationist views to be less advanced, that 
they are more extended. We cannot say now-a-days, 
that there is a political conspiracy in Cuba ; what is 
to be met with is one common and universal idea. 
Some are ready to shed their blood for the banner 
wdiich is to elevate them to the rank of men ; some 
appreciate its advantages, and fear and hope to obtain 
the same results by convictions and treaties. Some, 
ill at ease with the law that might put a stop to the 
abuses on which they live, would oppose its course ; 
but public sentiment advances daily, and all divine by 
an instinct, true messenger of the age,* and feel that 
the colossus of America is coming toward us, difiusing 
wealth and happiness in its path. It has been even 
asserted by a Spaniard, that the important act of an- 
nexation would have already taken place had it not 
been for the want of energy on the part of the Creoles. 

* Mr. Saco had called himself the messenser of the aee. 



APPENDIX. 241 

But Mr. Saco would prefer that Cuba were first 
independent. Would he not dread to launch her in 
all the attempts at self-government which have been 
the constant reef of destruction to the Spanish family 1 
Does not the picture of Spanish America, torn asunder 
by intestine dissensions, inspire him with sorrowful 
forebodings 1 Or would he deny the protecting shield 
which the government of the Union would lend to an 
incipient republic 1 

Informing Mr. Saco that even free-soil journals have 
shown themselves not averse to the acquisition of Cu- 
ba, and reminding him of occasional proofs given in 
the senate of a favorable disposition toward the same 
object, I sufficiently establish, I think, how strangely 
erroneous his information is regarding the opinions of 
the political parties in the United States. The north- 
ern states in defence of their manufactures and provi- 
sions, the eastern states of their shipping and lumber 
trade, the west of their grain and growing manufac- 
tures, and the south from the communion of slave in- 
terest, have but one voice — they all feel the want of 
Cuba. Polk, attempting negotiations at once, Cass, 
the candidate of the south, and Taylor, the President 
elect, are equally the servants of the popular will ; and 
with regard to the latter's views, Mr. Saco must have 
heard, ere now, what was expressed in the senate on 
the subject, something like two months ago (written in 
December, 1847). It is but too well known that the 
annexation of Cuba is held as a national object, which 
cannot be made to serve as the banner of any one par- 
ty. The masses who wish for it there, and who tol- 
erate with displeasure the individual oppression suffered 
at the very threshold of the soil of freedom, do not, 
perhaps, busy themselves with the means of acquiring 
Cuba ; but the states where slavery exists, aware of 
the political importance it has for them, do not slum- 
ber, and their prudence, their wise measures, and their 
enthusiasm in the cause, are sure guaranties that the 
11 



242 APPENDIX. 

annexation will take place at an early date. The 
pearl of the West Indies, with her thirteen or fifteen 
representatives in Congress, would be a powerful aux- 
iliary to the South, and her value as an immense out- 
let for American manufactures, and a source of vast 
tropical productions in exchange, and also as a military 
post, would surely make the attainment of Cuba a bond 
of peace and union for all the states. With regard to 
ourselves, who can doubt that it will be a course cal- 
culated to develop the fountains of wealth, and at once 
dispel the clouds hovering on our future. 

Now, then, the physical and moral wants of man- 
kind must be granted, particularly in America, where 
democracy prevails, and obstacles arising from rights 
of conquest or possession, are settled by compacts 
at the risk of penalties or outbreaks more harm- 
ful to the parties opposing. If citizens can be op- 
pressed under a tyrannical administration, when brutal 
force supports it, democracy may likewise use its might 
and strength to take off the irons from the victims of 
despotism. The power of the American confederacy 
lies in the number of resolute freemen who cover the 
surface of their territory — in the fact that their indus- 
try does not bear heavy taxation to pay debts con- 
tracted by preceding generations, nor to support me- 
nials, office-holders, or princes, useless to the land ; or 
armies, only necessary to perpetuate wrong. More 
even than all this, does their power spring, especially 
in foreign countries, from the certainty that the cause 
of the Americans is the cause of individual liberty. 
Who, even though only partially enlightened, does not 
love this cause ? What soldier, forcibly drawn from 
his country and home, would oppose an enemy in 
whose victory he sees his own and mankind's freedom ? 
What parent, on leaving this world, would not prefer 
that his children, and the inheritance he bequeaths to 
them, remain under the guardianship of the laws of 
the Union ? 



APPENDIX. 243 

If Texas had the advantage that her population con- 
sisted chiefly of American citizens, it had to beat 
against marked opposition, instead of the unanimous 
voice with which Cuba will be hailed by all the states 
and parties. The former had not the outlets and 
markets which the latter can offer, and when her cry 
of annexation sounded, France and Spain, still under 
dynastic influences, dared yet, the one to awe with her 
fleets, the other to concert pitiful combinations or ex- 
peditions for the restoration of monarchy in America ; 
while England intrigued, and did every thing but 
launch into war, to prevent the annexation. What 
will France undertake, henceforth governed, as she is, 
by the law of popular majority, against American re- 
publicanism ? 

Without entering into a detailed examination of the 
aid which Cuban annexation may receive from the 
United States, it suffices my purpose to set down — 

1. That there is not, in Cuba, the faith and deter- 
mined will in favor of the statu quo^ which Mr. Saco 
attributes to a part of the population. 

2. That we would not consider any moral aid as 
such, coming from our republican neighbors, were it 
not based on the determination of the masses to make 
it real and effective. 

3. That precisely when American democracy has 
given more proofs of energy, Mr. Saco's attempt to 
excite mistrust in the promises even of the President, 
were there any such, seems singular and unaccounta- 
ble. 

4. That so far from demanding twenty-five or thirty 
thousand men* of the government of the United States, 
were it a question of begging in such quarters, I would 
ask for fertile lands in abundance, situated no matter 
where, in order to give profitable occupation to the 
individuals of the Spanish army, who, instead of offer- 

* Mr. Saco's ingenious system of annexation. 



244 A.PPENDIX. 

ing support to the government, as Mr. Saco supposes, 
are actually suffering the penalty of military service 
which the queen's party imposes on the prisoners in 
the civil war ; and as the discontent is shown among 
them by simultaneous desertions and executions be- 
yond what had ever before been noticed, Mr. Saco's 
remark that Spain has a respectable army, faithful 
under any circumstances, may very possibly be taken 
as ironical. 

Whenever Mr. Saco shall appreciate, in its proper 
worth, the omnipotence, in this hemisphere, of the 
Great People, he will understand why it is that I rely 
upon them to watch and prevent attempts calculated 
to revolutionize the slaves. English interference in 
opposition to the United States, is a dream. A nation 
living on credit, whose masses are deprived of labor at 
the slightest threat of war, and whose capital and com- 
mercial business are so interwoven and confounded 
with those of the American people, cannot run the risk 
of even a temporary suspension of friendly relations 
with them. The denouements of the questions of the 
northeastern boundary — of Oregon — of Texas — and of 
the Mexican war, in all of which the republic gave the 
law, are the practical demonstration of this peculiar 
situation. England, even before the show of power 
and military skill exhibited in the Mexican war, had 
reconciled herself to the unlimited aggrandizement of 
the United States. On the other hand, the considera- 
ble consumption of English manufactures in Cuba, can 
but increase under the more liberal regulations of the 
federal government. Peace and markets for her man- 
ufactures are matters of life and death for England ; 
the minister, tory or whig, who forgets these truths, 
would bitterly weep his error ; because the mind of 
man is not able to compass the disasters which a war, 
especially with her ancient colony, would bring upon 
herself and the commerce of the civilized world. How 
can we then read, without wonder, the picture drawn 



APPENDIX. 245 

by Mr. Saco, of England, intriguing to indispose and 
injure, involving in servile and sanguinary insurrection 
the nation whose peaceful relations are her first ele- 
ment of existence. The American people are too 
strong, their policy too open, their mission too noble 
for England to cause them, indirectly, the least harm, 
without suffering the consequences of her treason. 
And such is the respect which manufacturing and com- 
mercial wants have created for the United States, 
among the English, that Cuba will obtain the surest 
guaranty of the pacific views of Great Britain, when- 
soever the American cabinet shall openly enter into 
negotiations for her annexation as a new state. While 
this is not done, the crater which, owing to that king- 
dom or its American colonies, Mr. Saco noticed under 
our feet fifteen years ago, and which has suddenly dis- 
appeared to his sight, remains more dangerous than 
ever, for we have the misfortune not to ground hopes 
or faith in the cabinet of Madrid, or their agents, who, 
to judge from the men who have come in power to 
the island for many past years, will always be at the 
disposal of cabal and bribery. From the thoughtless or 
perfidious conduct of the Spanish ministers, who have 
tolerated the African slave trade, notwithstanding the 
danger it brings on Cuba, Saco infers that their suc- 
cessors in office, whatever party they may belong to, 
will have the wisdom to resist all advice or inducement, 
political or personal, calculated to emancipate the 
slaves in the Spanish West Indies. Surely, the ad- 
ministration has given proofs of being very system- 
atical and consistent, for us to trust to the natural 
separation which ought to exist between the suppres- 
sion of the slave trade and the emancipation of the 
slaves, as to a barrier, not to be leaped over by cor- 
ruption, fanaticism, or incapacity. Did we see any 
signs that the local government, in Cuba, understood 
the true position of the country, and the changes that 
have been operated in what surrounds them, it would 



2i6 APPENDIX. 

be some excuse for the confiding assertions which are 
in Mr. Saco's lips, both novel and contrary to his 
usually irresistible logic. 

I will repeat once and again that so far from con- 
sidering with this gentleman, that the demand of Cuba 
by the cabinet of Washington will induce the court of 
St. James to set at work sinister measures, 1 believe 
it to be the most efficient means of disarming the latter, 
who will always submit every other consideration to 
England's first essential wants of peace and markets. 

Yes, without any hesitation we must assert, that to 
save slavery from a bloody crisis, and give to the insti- 
tution the security which it should possess, as property, 
and which is not only compatible, but indispensable to 
its available reform, there is no other road than annex- 
ation. 

" Spain dreams not," says our absent countryman, 
"of emancipating the slaves." Let us lay quietly to 
rest on this assurance. But on what is it based? 
Has she not A\ithheld this assurance, that our anxiety 
might awe us, hanging over our heads like the sword 
of Damocles ? On what circumstances is so important 
a key to the wealth of the island made to depend? 
May not the mere signature of a secretary of state, in 
an evil hour, rob the Cubans of their wealth, the com- 
mercial world of a market, and the Spanish family of a 
country 1 That Mr. Saco should be the one to qualify, 
as imaginary, the fear of the emancipation of the slaves, 
after the recent attack on the institution in other Eu- 
ropean colonies, is a matter of wonder ; that he should 
think a war possible between Great Britain and the 
United States, evinces how little he has given his at- 
tention to the events herein noticed, and to the con- 
ciliatory policy of the latter government, or else that 
he sees every thing with the eyes of an abolitionist. 

It would seem as if the ancient editor of the Cuban 
Review, precisely in the manner in which he appears 
unacquainted with the present backward political con- 



APPENDIX. 247 

dition of the island, as contrasted with the remote 
period when the press was permitted to publish his 
writings, is equall}^ unconscious of the influence and 
mighty power which the arm}^ and navy of the United 
States have acquired in this hemisphere — particularly 
on these seas, in sight, if I may be allowed so to speak, 
of their navy yard. In speaking of open war between 
England and the American Union, he says, " England, 
commanding the seas with her formidable fleets, will 
blockade our ports, will prevent the aid which we 
might expect from the confederacy ; our produce would 
then not be exported, and as the climax to our mis- 
fortune, she would throw upon our coast an army of 
negroes." 

Is not this a picture drawn to the taste of the painter 1 
Are the results of the last war between those countries, 
and England's anxiety to terminate it, forgotten? Is 
no account to be taken of the subsequently acquired 
greatness of the American people ? And with regard 
to the suggestion of employing negroes in the contest, 
the stain stamped on the British character, according 
to the powerful expression of Lord Chatham, by the 
enlistment of savages against their brothers, will not 
again be exhibited on the part of that great nation, who, 
after more than a half century of progress, is a model 
at this present day of whatsoever is noble and philan- 
thropic. 

It has been asserted before now, that the Anglo- 
Saxon family, divided as it now is into two great por- 
tions of American and English, from their own supe- 
riority and activity, are destined at some future day to 
come into conflict with one another in a most destruc- 
tive manner ; but experience, which often brings to no- 
thing human foresight, is exhibiting on the contrary so 
many indications of the peaceful tendency of modern 
civilization, and particularly of those two nations, that 
I am really shocked at finding Mr. Saco anticipating 
hatred and war between them. At any rate, the care 



248 APPENDIX. 

with which every subject of disagreement has been ar- 
ranged among them during the past ten years, is an 
evidence that, at least during our generation, no change 
will take place in the harmony heretofore preserved 
for the weal of mankind. 

Before closing this hurried, ill-concerted, and in- 
complete refutation, I must request the former advo- 
cate of Cuban rights to tell us, where lies the limit 
which should be marked to the forbearance and quiet 
submission to political degradation of his countrymen. 
I look around to the people of various countries, and I 
see none where, with so many interests, industry, and 
trade at stake, capital is so utterly without influence, 
direct or indirect, in the administration ; I see thai- 
while despotism and its encroachments are disappearing 
elsewhere, we are pressed down with more tenacious 
grasp ; I see the Creoles put aside, oppressed, vexed, 
and personally and shamefully trampled upon as they 
never were before. 

One only blessing — one only, but radiant, like the 
sun of Cuba — has come out of so much oppression and 
contempt : the consciousness of our dignity and self- 
respect. The Cubans have at least learned to suffer 
in silence, and to despise the tyrants Avho place them- 
selves in the path of their rights. Spain will not find 
again the majority of the Cubans prostrated in an in- 
gratiating attitude before their oppressors. If the 
rulers have the aid of an army of demoralized and 
constrained soldiers, the citizens may rely on the justice 
of their cause, on the moral support of the age, and on 
the democracy of the American Union. If the former 
are encouraged by the forebodings of an enlightened 
Cuban (Mr. Saco), the latter confide in the prophecy 
of a far-famed Spaniard, which is even now being ful- 
filled. " This federal repubUc," said the Count de 
Aranda, in his secret memoir of 1783, " is a pigmy at 
its cradle, if I am allowed so to speak ; she has needed 
the support of two states powerful like France and 



APPENDIX. 249 

Spain to obtain her independence. The day will come 
when she will be a giant — a formidable colossus even 
in these parts. She will forget the services received 
from those countries, and will only think of her own 
aggrandizement. Freedom of conscience, facility in 
settling new emigration in vast territories, jointly with 
the advantage of a new government (he meant free) will 
draw to her the artisans and laborers of all nations, 
because men go after fortune ; and in a few years we 
shall see the tyranny of this same colossus of which I 
speak." 

It was ever the prerogative of minds of a high order 
to anticipate great events. Thus the Count de Aranda 
while judiciously estimating freedom of conscience and 
popular institutions in the United States, as causes for 
the future growth and annexation of neighboring states, 
and Chatham while recommending in the British parlia- 
ment, notwithstanding the scant population of the in- 
cipient republic, that British power should not be 
enforced to oppose her — both acknowledged that moral 
influence superior to all other influences in this age, 
which Mr. Saco appears not to understand. 

Would to God that this distinguished Cuban — disre- 
garding the whisperings of his self-love, which may 
give bitter fruits to his country, should it keep him in 
the course he has chosen — would not battle against the 
march of the times, nor disavow the true progress 
which is being extended to the human race under the 
propitious flag of American Republicanism. 

The United States increase in wealth, civilization, 
industry, and power, in a manner unknown in the 
annals of the world. Their population doubles every 
twenty-five years ; and a progression so stupendous 
foils human calculation as to what will be their power 
and influence in times to come among the nations of 
the earth. What monarchy, what empire, what con- 
federacy or league, can so much as raise their eyes to 
measure such boundless power 1 What arm is strength- 
11* 



250 APPENDIX. 

ening, and where, to subdue at some future day this 
proud and living expression of political and industrial 
freedom ! Twenty millions of souls now, forty in 1873, 
and so successively on, till we come to 320,000,000 in 
one century. Make to this estimate, founded on the 
past experience, what reasonable deductions you please, 
and what splendid results may we not expect yet 1 
Those are now in existence who will see this vast con- 
federacy holding a population of 200,000,000 ! Where 
is the model, the precedent, the resemblance to this 
great spectacle, in the history of all the nations of the 
world ? 

In the presence of a standing reality like this, which 
strikes our eyes, which our hands touch, and Avhich fills 
our hearts with raptures, because it is the triumph of 
humanity, how little must the reasonings, the views, 
the trivial and pompous declamations of the subdued 
press of Havana appear ! Shall the great Mississippi, 
after mingling with its own the waters of the Missouri, 
the Ohio, and thousand other tributary streams — after 
impelling onward along its margin in majestic course, 
productions of all kinds, wealth, commerce, and popu- 
lation, so many signs of the mighty approach of a new, 
great, and enterprising civilization — shall the Missis- 
sippi, I say, while expanding its waters in the wide 
gulf, announce to the democracy of the world that the 
advantages and the glory of the American institutions 
will not pass forward — that the Queen of the Antilles, 
fertile, and great, and capable of presenting similar 
development of productions and well-being, will stand 
in the Avay as a check to the powerful impetus. 

It is sufficient to look over the extensive valley of 
the Mississippi to understand that the natural direction 
of its growth, the point of connection of its prodigious 
European commerce, and of its rational defence, is Cuba. 
Situated as it were on the very path, in other hands, 
and with different institutions, Cuba is a wall that 
divides and interrupts their manifest growth; com- 



APPENDIX. 251 

manding as she does the narrow channels of Yucatan 
and Florida from Cape San Antonio and the Mayzi 
Point, were she to belong to a nation strong in the seas, 
what disaster and ruin would it not be in her power to 
inflict on the American Union in case of a war ! The 
Americans know it, and the efforts of their government 
will multiply and become more energetic to obtain her 
annexation in proportion as their own greatness in- 
creases and approaches the extreme South with their 
settlements, their arts, their wealth, their wants, and 
their glory. 

LEON FRAGUA DE CALVO. 



THE END. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Cuba discovered by Columbus. — Names of the Island. — Character 
of the Natives. — Town of Baracoa. — Havana burnt in 1538. — Seat 
of Government transferred to Havana. — Succession of Governors. 
— Cultivation of Tobacco and Sugar introduced about 1580. — 
Slavery introduced at the same time. — Depredations of Pirates. — 
A Commissioner of the Inquisition comes from Carthagena to re- 
side in Havana. — Jamaica taken by the English. — Apprehensions 
of the Cubans. — The English repulsed.— Walls commenced round 
the City of Havana in 1663.— City of Santiago destroyed by an 
Earthquake.— Invasion of the Island by the Enghsh in 1762. — 
Morro Castle taken by them July 30th, and the City of Havana on 
the 14th of August. — Distribution of the Spoils. — Peace concluded 
with England in 1763.— The Island restored to the Spaniards. — 
Results of the vi^ise Policy of Las Casas. — Great Fire in 1802.— 
News of the Proceedings of Napoleon in Spain. — Its Effects in 
Cuba. — Negro Conspiracy. — Different Captains-General. pagjc 7 



CHAPTER II. 

Political sketch previous to the XlXth century. — Indian population. — 
The Island a military post. — Commerce and Navigation. — Foreign 
trade.— Restrictions on trade.— Situation of Spain.— Political 
changes in 1812 and 1820.— The Constitution proclaimed.— Ma- 
sonic Societies.— The old Spaniards.- Roval Order of 1825.— Count 
Villanueva.— Dangers of the Slave Trade. — Despotic Encroach- 
ments. — Rejection of the Cuban Deputies at Madrid. — General Ta- 
con. — Hist yranny and Venality. — His Removal effected by a Com- 
promise. — Fear of a servile Insurrection. — Cruel measures taken 
against the Creoles and free people of Color. — The work of the 
Countess of Merlin. — Anecdotes. — Insurrections in different parts 
of the Island.— Enormities practiced by the officials of Govern- 
ment.— Their effect upon the native Cubans. — Present distressing 
Situation of the Island. - > ^^ 



254 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Geographical Situation of Cuba. — Its Beauty and Fertility. — Differ- 
ent Names of the Island in illustration. — Notice of " Notes on Cuba, 
by a Physician." — Trip to Guines. — Beautiful Farms. — Hedges of 
Aloes. — Plantain Fields. — Sugar and Coffee Estates. — Tropical 
Trees. — Singular way of distributing Milk. — Life in Guines. — 
The Valley of the Yumuri.— The Bay of Matanzas.— The Ceiba 
and Jaguey-marcho. — Subterraneous River. — Robbers. — Storm in 
the Rainy Season. — Errors in the " Notes on Cuba." — The Au- 
thor's ludicrous Mistakes. — False Notions of Slavery. — Oppressive 
Acts of the Officers of the Law. — Bad Influence of the Siave-Trade 
Party. ... 93 



CHAPTER I\^. 

Habits and Customs of the Island. — "Letters from Cuba." — Visit to 
the Estate of Don Sautiago. — The Quitrin. — The Calesero. — 
Roads. — The Tavern of " La Perfecta." — Hard Fare. — Manuel's 
Distress. — Interesting Account of Himself — Sugar Estate. — Don 
Santiago's Patriotism. — The Sugar Master. — Anecdotes. — Musical 
taste of the Cubans. — The Cuban Press. — Story of Maria del Rosa- 
rio. — Evils and Abuses of the Administration of Justice. - 117 



CHAPTER V. 

Visit to the Country Residence of a wealthy Marquis. — Singular Oc- 
casion of it. — The Marquis and his Creditors. — The Spanish Judge 
and the Advocate. — The Marchioness and her Guests. — Her Chil- 
dren. — Mode of bringing up a Family. — Easy way of dealing with 
stubborn Creditors. — The unfortunate Potrerero. — Early Dawn in 
Cuba. — The Morning and Evening. — Tacon's Opera House. — In- 
solence of the Soldiers. — Anecdotes. — Beauty of the young Cu- 
banese. — The married Women. — Their Habits and Customs. — 
Shopping. — Exercise in the Volante. — Children. — The lower 
Classes. — The Guagiro. — His Courtship. — Obsolete Customs. — 
The hours of the Oracion. — Conclusion. .... 137 



CHAPTER VI. 

State of Religion in Cuba. — Contrast with the same in former times. 
— The " Angelas." — Flirtations carried on in the Churches. — Infi- 
delity universally prevalent. — Absence of all Religious Feeling in 
Families of every class. — No piety among the Priests. — Their dis- 
gu8tir)g Debaucheries and Excesses. — Horrible instances of this in 
the priest Don Felix del Pino. — Roman Catholicism. — Why many 
of the Cubans desire Annexation with the United States. — An ap- 
peal to the Christian philanthropist. - - - - 152. 



CONTENTS. 255 

CHAPTER VII. 

Public Education.— Attempts to falsify Statements.— Official Items 

from the Census of 1841. — Schools pillaged by the Treasury. 

Saco's Parallel between the Spanish and British Colonies. — De- 
gradation and Ignorance in the Country Regions. — Frightful Pic- 
tures of Vice. 16Q 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Cuban Grievances.— Personal Liberty.— Personal Security.— The 
Right of Property. — Instances of exercise of despotic Power. — 
Senor Saco.— Number deported and banished by Tacon.— The 
same System continued. — Taxation in Cuba. — Details. — Summary 
of Grievances. - 165 

CHAPTER IX. 

What is to become of Cuba. — Spain and her American settlements. — 
Cuba cannot be held by Spain.— Progress of Events. — Right of 
Cuba to Revolutionize. — Must ultimately belong to England or to 
the United States. — Reasons why it will fall to the latter. — Con- 
clusion. 187 

APPENDIX, 203 



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SAMUEL HUESTON, Publisher, 

139 Nassau-st., New York. 



Just Published, 

SAINT LEGER; 



OR, 



\t '^xuh nf life. 



' Quicquid agunt homines, votura, timor, ira, voluptas, 
Gaudia, discijrsus, nostri farrago libelli," 



NEW YORK : GEO. P. PUTNAM. 
LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY. 



FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNALS. 

" The author is entitled to the gratitude of all thinking and seriow ^ Jnds, for 
the very plan and leading idea of his book. A young soul anxir < /, agitated, 
and disti'essed with the mighty problem of our present human hfe us connect- 
ed with our future destiny ; a thoughtful spirit on the shore of the great ocean 
of existence, dubitans, ciy-cumspectans, hesitans — tamquam in mart immenso vectu- 
rus, midta adversa secimda revolvens — seeking rest, yet finding none, because un- 
satisfied with respect to the ultimate, and perfect, and absolute rest of the hu- 
man spirit — extracting no substantial enjoyment from the ' seen and tempo- 
ral,' while in darkness with regard to the 'unseen and eternal' — ^finding, in 
short, no happiness in any lower good while the great question remains un- 
answered — who, or what will show us the good, the absolnte good, that sum- 
mum bonum for which 'a man should sti-aightway sell all that he hath;' that 
good which humanity lost in Adam, and which it hopes to find again in Christ 1 

"A religious weekly periodical,* of high standing, says of Saint Leger : ' It 
is a book we cannot recommend. Its want of definite moral purpose is the more 
noticeable in consequence of the manifest power of the writer.' With all defer- 
ence we would say that, such a definite presentation of such a definite moral 
purpose, in the outset, would have entirely defeated any true moral purpose 

the author may have had in view The author is evidently one familiar 

with his Bible. This, in these days, is not commonly true of any man, unless 
he really loves it, and it reveals the secret of much of his power. It is this 
which reveals to him a chapter in the human heart unknown to such writers 
as Dickens and Bulwer, for it is evident that, in the delineation of certain traits, 
and the power of certain emotions, he strikes a chord which never thus vi- 
brates to their touch." — •' The. Inner Life, a review of Saint Leger, by Tayler 
Lewis, LL.D.''-^Literary World. 

" St. Leger is without a prototype in English literature. It is not to be read 
for the interest of its story, but as an accurate and subtile delineation of the 
workings of a deep, inner experience, and the rich blossoming out of character 
in a skeptical and fermenting age. In this point of view it is a work of origin- 
ality and undeniable power. The style is exquisitely adapted to its subject. 
There are passages of rythmical, melodious sweetness, which belong to the best 
days of English prose, and reveal both the ear and the hand of a true artist." — 
New York Tribune. 

* New York Observer. 



'♦ No man who has ever asked himself the three startling questions—where 
am I ? what am I ? whither go I ? can fail to sympathize with the hero of our 
author's story. Our chief interest in tlie hero lies in tracing the progress of 
his individual mind from its consciousness to maturity, and in noting the eftects 
which are produced on his moral and intellectual nature hy a hfe full of passion 
and adventure. We see all passing circumstances from the centre of his spir- 
itual being. We seldom feel like lending him an arm to protect him from out- 
ward troubles, but often hke dropping into his mind a thought to save him from 
the evil influence of doubts engendered by the workings of such troubles on his 
inner nature. This manner of telling a story is, certainly, a bold and novel one ; 
but, at the same time, one which rivets our closest attention, and attaches our 
warmest sympathy. 

" In the darkest part of the hero's career, the profoundest point of the whole 
lesson is taught through the partial instrumentality of one of the most beautiful 
womanly creations in the whole range of English fiction. Theresa, the embod- 
iment of the spirit of intuitive and simple faith — a type of uncorrupted human- 
ity — and Wolfgang Hegewisch, the embodiment of desperate philosophy, and 
hopeless skepticism — a type of humanity suffering through its own sins, and 
through the sins of others — are the two opposite agents of St. Leger's salvation. . . 

" Around the central character of Saint Leger, during his mental struggles, 
there is continually passing a series of rapid and startling events, which seem 
to arise, like the chain of circumstances in the doctrines of the Necessitarians, 
for the purpose of hurrying the hero to some fated end. The manner in which 
Saint Leger's inner nature, and the course of outward events, act and re-act on 
each other, is managed with a masterly hand. 

" So subtile and intimate is the unicm of the two states of existence, and yet 
so distinct is the preservation of each, that the reader turns from one to the 
other with equal pleasure, never becoming so absorbed in the hero's mental 
movements as to lose sight of the story, nor so carried away by the story as to 

forget his sympathy with the silent woi'kings of Saint Leger's mind Its 

strong good sense, its firm sentiment, its deep, subtile, metaphysical reasoning, 
its healthful morahty, can only be passingly noticed." — Sarlam's Magazine. 

" There is a vein of deep sentiment pervading the book, which raises it far 
above the level of ordinary works of entertainment. The author is both poeti- 
cal and philosophical ; he writes with perspicuity, grace, and elegance ; and 
the minute revelations of feeling, faith, mental processes, sensation, and super- 
stition ; the peculiar picture of the inward life of the chief personage, combined 
with the incidents and descriptions interspersed, render it one of the most at- 
tractive books of the season." — Home Journal. 

" Saint Leger has many touching points ; sometimes it touches us by its 
simplicity, sometimes by its eloquence, at all times by its truthfulness The 
poetry of young life is portrayed with enthusiam, and the cares with which ita 
future is shadowed the author does not turn away from, with irresolution of 
judgment." — New Orleans Bulletin. 

" A novel sui generis in the annals of American literature. Saint Leger solves 
the problem of human life, while it accurately sets forth the sufferings and 
strivings of an acute philosophical mind, and presents to the perplexed and 
wearied in the search of truth, the simple panacea of faith." — Philadelphia 
Drawing-Room Journal. 

" Full of thought and sentiment, and of a thoroughly original cast, it will 
make a permanent impression on the public mind. It bears the marks, too, of 
scholarship, and fine taste, and of an eclectic cast of mind." — New York Com- 
mercial Advertiser. 

" One of the very best books that has fallen under our notice, for a long 
time." — Scott's Philadelphia. Weekly. 

" Abounding in the most thrilling interest, in narrative, and in masha,"— Me- 
tropolitan. , . . _ 



" The truth is, it is a peculiar production There are not many men in 

this country, known as authors, from whom it could have come A young 

Englishman, of a noble Warwickshire family, with a devout and gentle mother 
(he says of her, finely, ' Morning and evening did I lisp my infantile prayers 
to her, and it seemed as if she sent them up for me to God"), and with a high- 
prinf :pled, stem, and taciturn father, goes out. early, into the world, to see it, 
to taote of it, to master it, or to be mastered by it. The story runs in the first 
person singular ; the hero is the narrator, and, mirabile dictii, he does not once 
fall in love, ride horseback, kill his man, nor commend himself to women as a 
rake. Perhaps these defects ought to take him out of the category of roman- 
tic personages. But he has his adventures, nevertheless He is educated, 

at home, by a private tutor — a cold-blooded, stoical, intellectual Pantheist — who 
drives an entering wedge for infinite mischief into the young man's faith. Saint 
Leger contends, ail along, with a traditionary superstition, sutFers from it, haa 
his existence shadowed by it, and illustrates the wicked folly of dark predic- 
tions Instigated by his speculative preceptor. Saint Leger travels to the 

Continent, and takes up his abode at Leipsic To give the true termina- 
tion to his unhappy internal struggle, we cannot but hope the author of Saint 
Leger will run the ■' Threads" of his " Life" a Uttle farther." — Boston Chris- 
tian Register. 

" The author appeals only to the moral sensibilities. He is a thinker, and has 
not only the power to set others a thinking, but of uttering for others the 
thoughts for which they have never found a tongue. Many will find in this 
book the history of their own mental struggles." — Newark Daily Advertiser. 

" A mystical, metaphysical novel, written with great power and beauty ; orig- 
inal in its character, and deeply interesting. By the thoughtful and reflecting 
reader, it will be regarded as a work of rare merit." — Washington Union. 

" This work, which has attracted so much attention, is in the form of an au- 
tobiography, and abounds in the most beautiful ideas of life and happiness, while 
a vein of elevated morality runs through the volume." — Providence Journal. 

" The book is a strange one — ^neither a romance, a biography, or a love story, 
but rather a blending of them. Yet the occurrences are a part of the great 
book of eventful life. No one can read the first chapter without wishing to go 
on, and the interest is heightened at every step." — Philadelphia City Item. 

" The author is one who has looked beneath the surface of things, and to 
whom the heart of man, in aU its windings, seems famihar." — Middletown Oasis. 

" A book of great strength, containing vivid and artistic limnings of huruan 
nature in its darkness, and in its spiritual brightness." — New York Evening Post. 

" Under the drapery of fiction, the author inculcates the purest morals, and 
the highest, and most ennobling of Christian faith. The language is pohshed, 
and even elegant, and it abounds with passages of great fervor and beauty. The 
work has a pecuhar fascination about it." — New York Journal of Commerce. 

" Who is the author of this powerfully written work ? We have read it with 
more absorbed interest than has been awakened by any work of fiction that has 
come within our notice for a long time." — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 

" It may be called a diary of the human heart, its purposes, and its impulses ; 
yet it inculcates a true Christian philosophy. No one can rise from its peruScd 
without a satisfied feeling that his destiny is wisely ordered, and that tlie pur- 
suit of truth is the surest path to happiness." — Philadelphia Sun. 

" It is a book of power. Its author has genius ; genius for descriptiori, for 
character, and for dialogue." — Boston Post. 

" The book is of the highest order of English literature." — The Metropolis. 



There is thought enough, learning enough, invention, passion, power enough, 
in Saint Leger, for the best half-dozen fashionable romances of the time. It is 
perhaps wanting in continuity of interest ; but its very deficiency in this respect 
makes it but more true to the general experience It is altogether pro- 
foundly philosophical, and must be classed among the finest of those fictions 
which illustrate the development and estabUshment of whatever is beautiful 
and true in human character. — " Review of Saint Leger, by R. W. Griswold." 

_ " A very singular production, written with great power, and unusual abil- 
ity." — Germaiuown Telegraph. 

"A book exhibiting great power and genius." — Boston Times. 

"A brilliant book, full of suggestions of wisdom." — Tribune. 



FROM THE ENGLISH JOURNALS. 

" A very extraordinary book. It is the ' Tremaine' and ' De Vere' of the 
metaphysical student. There is the same force, the same knowledge, the same 
originality of thought and expression ; and we shall be disappointed if Saint Le- 
ger doss not rival the fame of those two justly celebrated works." — Morning 
Post. 

" The moral purpose of Saint Leger is to warn against vague and dreamy ap- 
prehensions in childhood ; the substitution of Rationalistic and Pantheistic no- 
tions for Christianity later in life, and their concealment— -in the case of the 
hero from his mother. The first point is illustrated by the peculiar disposition 
of William Henry Saint Leger, his peculiar training at the family country-seat, 
aiid an old prophecy touching the Saint Leger race, which the rest cf the family 
wisely disregard, but which the hero nourishes in secret, and which causes him 
to regard himself as a doomed mortal, or child of destiny. 

" The heresy is produced by a German tutor, who is himself infected with 
the singular ideas of religion at that time (toward the close of the last century) 

springing up in this country The descriptions have force and pictur- 

esqueness , the reflections strength and rhetoric." — Spectator. 

A powerfully written work, which unveils the baseness that underlies the 
loftiest pride, the doubt that ever haunts the stnigghng faith, the impetuous folly 
that mingles with wisdom's high resolves, the ignorance and blindness that lurk, 
ill-disguised, beneath the free-thinker's boldest speculations, and the emptiness 
and deadness of heart which succeed the satiety of a self-gratified life 

" The variety of characters introduced, all sharply chiseled, their varied for- 
tunes and destinies, all contribute to impart to Saint Leger a character of orig- 
inahty, and high moral and intellectual interest." — John Bull. 

" Here, there, and every where, the author of Sfiint Leger gives exhibitions 
of passionate and romantic power." — Athenceum. 

GEO. P. PUTNAM, Pubhsher, 

155 Broadway. 



